CooMrvatioD Rooorctt 
Iig-ncf^1>pel 



SLAVERY, 



E 449 
.S627 
Copy 1 



CON. AND PRO. 



OR, 



Its %m% 



BY 



A.MOR P^TRI^E. 



HJ^" This publication is intended especially for the North* 



WASHINGTON: 
HENRY POLKINIIORN, PRINTER, 

1858. 



(Eon. auLt JjJro. : 
OR, 

A SEEMOI AND ITS ANS¥ER, 



In the following pages the compiler has endeavored to show 
the arguments against and those for slavery ; the former as ex- 
hibited in a sermon delivered by the Rev. Joseph P. Thomp- 
son, of the Tabernacle Church, New York, and afterwards 
published as a pamphlet, entitled, " Teachings of the New 
Testament on Slavery ;'' and the latter in a pamphlet, by 
" Amor Patri^, entitled, " The Blasphemy of Abolitionism 
Exposed. A Bible Argument.'" These two little works em- 
body the whole subject of slavery, as treated in the Scriptures, 
and as it exists as the " peculiar institution " of the South. 
The pamphlet of Amor PatriiTS was issued some six years before 
Mr. Thompson's, and they are now combined in order to show 
that Mr. Thompson is either mistaken in his Scriptural refer- 
ences, or has intentionally perverted the true construction of 
them, and purposely omitted many texts that make against the 
abolition and anti-slavery doctrine which he advocates. " Amor 
Patriae " is a gentleman of the North, who formerly resided at 
the South, and is well acquainted with the popular feeling and 
the social condition of both sections of the country. The ser- 
mon of Mr. Thompson is given entire, subdivided under diifer- 
ent heads as he published it, and the pamphlet of Amor Patriae 
is dissected as, a running commentary to each part of the sermon, 
and in concluding general remarks on the whole. The com- 
bined works are submitted to the solemn consideration of every 
thinking reader. Both will be easily distinguished by their 
captions and the difterent type in which they are presented to 
the reader. Mr. Thompson commences as follows wiih the text 
quoted : 

The New Testament Code on Slavery. 

Ephesians G: 5-10. — " Servants, be obedient to ihem that arc your masters 
' according to the flesh, v/ith fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, 
' as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants 
' of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing ser- 



' vice, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatsoever good thing 
' any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond 
' or free. 

<' And ye, masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening; 
' knowing tliat your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of per- 
' sons witli Him." 

The epistle to the Ephesians contains the Christian code for domestic life. 
The same for substance is repeated in the epistle to the Colossians. Hus- 
bands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, are severally 
instructed in their personal and relative duties. To study these duties, to 
preach upon them, to practice them, is as much a part of the gospel as to 
study, preach and practice the primary duties of repentance and faith. The first 
sermon of Christ at Nazareth was not a discourse on theology, but a plea 
for humanity, and a promise of blessings to society, especially to its inferior 
classes, through his mission of grace. 

The law of Christianity in the relation of master and servant, the nature 
of that relation, and the reciprocal duties of master and servant under the 
gospel, are presented in the text as an essential point in the regimen of a 
church of Christ, and in the application of Christianity to human society. 

It has been arbitrarily assumed, that because the relation of master and 
servant is treated of in the same connection with the marriage relation and 
the parental relation, it rests upon the same natural and moral grounds with 
these fundamental relations of human life. Hence it is argued that the 
abuses of slavery are no more valid as an objection against the system of 
slavery, than abuses of the marital and parental relations are valid against 
the institution of marriage. Since all have to do in some form with the re- 
lation of master and servant, and since the institution of slavery now de- 
mands the sanction and support of the Federal Government, and the suffrages 
of all the citizens of the United States, it behooves us carefully to examine 
the gospel code touching that relation. The question is not one of mere 
abstract morality, nor of political economy or expediency, but a question of 
practical Christianity. 

What does the New Testament teach concerning the relation of master 
and servant? 

That the New Testament recognizes the existence of slavery as a fact, is 
plain from various allusions to that institution, especially in the letters of 
Paul, and from the instructions given to both masters and slaves. Does, then, 
Christianity acknowledge the propriety of that institution, or in any wise 
give to slavery its sanction? Does slavery, as it existed in the Roman em- 
pire, find any warrant in the New Testament? Is it there recognized as a 
rightful institution, whose abuses only call for condemnation, in the same 
way that an abuse of power by the husband or the father is condemned with- 
out invalidating the institution of marriage? Is the essence of the relation 
of master and servant the same with that of husband and wife, and of parent 
and child ? — and are the abuses of that relation to be treated as only upon a 
level with abuses of the tenderest relations of life? 

In answer to these questions I shall show, 

1. That in the apostolic age, slavery existed purely as a creature of the 
Roman law. 

2. That in defining the duties of the respective parties in that relation, 
the apostles nowhere acknowledge the rightfulness of slavery under the law 
of God. 

3. That by placing the parties in that relation under the higher law of 
Christian love and equality, the apostles decreed the virtual abolition of 
slavery, and did in time abolish it wherever Christianity gained the ascend- 
ency in society or in the state. 

These theses embody the code of the New Testament, and the practice of 
the apostles with respect to slavery in the Roman empire. 



Comments by " Amor Patri^." — Now, Mr. Thompson is 
egregiously mistaken in supposing that the code of slavery in 
the New Testament is entirely embodied in his text, and ex- 
plained in his comments. He seems to have overlooked many 
passages which define the "code " much more clearly than that 
which is the basis of his remarks, and give the negative to the 
three positions he has assumed above ; and we find even in his 
own text as copied, the divine injunction to the slave to serve 
faithfully, over and above the laws of the land, which our 
Savior commands should be respected. It may be proper here 
to remark, that in all the passages of Scripture I shall cite in 
the New Testament, the Avord servant means slave, DouLOS, in 
contradistinction to Misthotes, a hireling. 

Luke, chap. xvii. ver. 7-9 : " But which of you having a 
servant ploughing, or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and 
by, when he has come from the field. Go and sit down to meat? 
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I 
may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and 
drunken ; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink ? Doth he 
thank that servant because he did the things that were com- 
manded him? I trow not." 

Here the very first thing we find is our Savior, who con- 
demned all sins, both great and small, at the risk of his life, 
justify the righteousness of his own conduct by an appeal to 
this slave institution ! Now allow me to ask — would our aboli- 
tion brethren, or any sane person, bring forward an institution 
not approved of, in justification of their own conduct? And 
then to say — " Does he thank that servant for doing his duty ? " 
Duty ! Why, our abolition brethren would rather consider it 
his duty to kill his master ! then steal his horse, or some one's 
else, and fiee for his life to Canada ! 

Verily, if this be a sample of New Testament teaching, our 
abolition brethren will have to appeal to some other book than 
it to justify them in their mad crusade against their southern 
brethren. 

Colossians, chap. iii. ver. 22-24 : " Servants, obey in all 
things your masters according to the flesh ; not with eye-ser- 
vice, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; 
and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not 
unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the re- 
ward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Jesus Christ." 
Here we find the divine injunction repeated still more emphati- 
cally. 

1 Timothy, chap. vi. ver. 1-4 : " Let as many servants as 
are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, 



6 

that the name of God and his doctrince be not blasphemed. 
And they that have believing masters, let them not despise 
them, because they are brethren ; but rather do them service, 
because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. 
These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, 
and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to 
godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about ques- 
tions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, rail- 
ings, evil surmisings." Here we find nothing like disobedience 
to masters inculcated ; but we do find something like a full 
length portrait of our abolition brethren ! 

Titus, chap,, ii. ver. 1), 10 : "Exhort servants to be obedient 
unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things ; 
not answering again ; not purloining, but shewing all good 
fidelity ; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior 
in all things." 

1 Peter, chap. ii. ver. 18 : " Servants, be subject to your 
masters with all fear ; not only to the good and gentle, but 
also to the froward. " Here we find no excuse for disobedience. 
I presume we have now shown quite enough testimony to con- 
vince the convincible, that our brother abolitionists have as little 
to do, legitimately, Avith the institution, as they profess to have 
with the treatment. 

(Although our brother abolitionists profess now to eschew 
treatment from the argument, still I must be permitted, by 
way of episode, here to remark, that it is well known to those 
acquainted with the subject, that it takes from two-thirds to 
three-fourths of the produce of the plantations, upon an average, 
throughout the Southern States, to feed and clothe the opera- 
tives ; and they are the first served — the master or owner takes 
what remains : still we are told they get nothing for their 
labor ! In the cold barren lands of New England, they give 
their operatives one-half only of the product ! Now, let me 
ask, which is most in accoi dance with that passage of Scrip- 
ture they love to quote so well — " Give to your servants that 
which is just and equal?" to say nothing of their favorite 
Golden Rule, alias Rule of Gold, which they will please bear 
in mind applies as much to free servants, as to those belonging 
to their masters ?) 

SLAVERY NOT NORMAL NOR DIVINE. 

1. In the apostolic age slavery existed purely as a creature of the Roman 
law. It was not a normal condition of society, nor was it instituted by the 
command of God, or derived from his revealed Word; but it was an institu- 
tion of Roman society created by the civil law. 

The family institution exists everywhere as the normal conditionof society. 



It grows out of the very nature of things; the distinction of the sexes, with' 
their correlative instincts and afl'ections. Marriage is a law of nature whicr? 
lies at the foundation of human society. From this institution arises, by the 
same law of nature, the relation of parents and children. All this is nor- 
mal. It belongs to the rule or principle of man's existence. It is that with- 
out which mankind could not exist. All the rudiments of society are in the 
family; and the education and even the continuance of the race depends 
upon these fundamental relations of husband and wife, and parent and 
child. 

But will any one presume to assert this of the relation of master and 
slave ? Does this come into the same category with the relation of husband and 
wife, as a normal condition of society, a part of the natural law under which 
society itself exists? Then there has been no such thing as society in New 
York since July 4th, 1827, when domestic slavery was abolished by an act of 
the Legislature, passed ten years before. Then, in order to have a true nor- 
mal condition of society here, we must reestablish slavery. Then, in order 
to the constitution of society in Kansas, slavery must be there established as 
its corner-stone. Then there is no true civilization in England, France, or 
Germany; but Russia and Turkey are the only civilized nations of Europe, 
these alone having the element of domestic slavery. 

Will any sane man pretend that slavery is a normal state of society ? — 
that the relation of master and slave belongs to a right and healthy constitu- 
tion of society, just as the relations of husband and wife, and parent and 
child, are necessary to the existence of society? Marriage was the original 
basis of society in Eden, and is its normal condition everywhere; the rela- 
tion of parent and child is a natural consequence of this; but the relation of 
master and slave is wholly artificial and arbitrary. It is set up by power 
and then constituted by law, but does not spring from nature. I^ven the 
code of Justinian declares that slavery is "contrary to natural right," and 
that " all men by the law of nature are born in freedom." 

Moreover, as slavery in the apostolic age did not exist, as indeed it never 
can exist by natural law, so neither was it instituted by the command of 
God, or derived from his revealed Word. Marriage is not only an ordinance 
of nature, but was also a positive institution of the Creator in Paradise. 
Slavery, we have seen, is not, in any case, an ordinance of nature. Is it, 
then, a positive institution of the Creator? Did Jehovah ever ordain it, or 
give to it his sanction? And if so, was Roman slavery derived from any 
previous ordinance or sanction of the divine law? 

Domestic servitude existed in the patriarchal age, and under the Hebrew 
commonwealth. But it did not originate in a command of God, nor is there 
any evidence that God approved of it as an institution of society, but much 
evidence to the contrary. 

Com. by A. P. — That the institution of slavery is of divine 
origin I think is fully proven by the foregoing extracts from 
the New Testament, which show that it attracted the attention 
of the apostles, who laid down laws defining the position of mas- 
ter and slave, the relation of one to the other, and rules for the 
conduct of each. That the institution was eminently normal, 
the following extracts from the Old Testament abundantly 
prove : 

God, we are told, is yesterday, to-day, and forever, one and 
the same: that " he detests the unclean thing" sin ; hence, to 
call anything a sin he commands, or attempt to limit what 
he has established forever, is it not blasphemy ? Moreover, is 
it reasonable to suppose the Deity expected other nations to be 



8 

\)etter than he commanded his own chosen people to be, whom 
he intended as a light to the world ? It will be well to remem- 
ber, it was for the breach, not the observance of his laws, for 
which the Jews were so severely punished ! And so it will be 
with all who refuse to go and buy, setting up their own right- 
eousness superior to the God that made them ! It is a trick 
of the evil one, and must be eschewed as a most deadly poison 
to the soul, or it will weigh it down to the bottomless pit. 

Now for the Bible testimony. In Genesis xii. we find the first 
mention of Abraham in communication with the Deity. In verse 
5, we find him a slaveholder, and got his slaves in Haran just 
as we get money or other property : " And Abrara took Sarai 
his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that 
they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran ; 
and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan : and into the 
land of Canaan they came." 

Here it may be proper to remark, that ebed is the Hebrew 
for slave — saukeer for hired-servant. Hence there is no chance 
for the scholar to mistake. 

In chapter xiv. verse 14: "And when Abram heard that his 
brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born 
in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them 
unto Dan." Here we find Abraham had power over his slaves 
to expose their lives in battle. It is not so in the Southern 
States. 

In chapter xvi, verses 6-9: "But Abram said unto Sarai, 
Behold, thy maid is in thy hand ; do to her as it pleaseth thee. 
And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. 
And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water 
in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he 
said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou ? and whither 
wilt thou go ? And she saith, I flee from the face of my mis- 
tress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord saith unto her. Return 
to thy mistress, and submit thyself unto her hands." Here we see 
how God through his angel dealt with a runaway slave — very 
unlike an abolitionist. 

In chap. xvii. ver. 12, 13, we find God recognizing slavery: 
" And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, 
every man child in your generations ; he that is born in the 
house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of 
thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought 
with thy money, must needs be circumcised ; and my covenant 
shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 

In chap. XX. ver. 14, we find them made presents of, the same 
as any other property [goods and chattels.] "And Abimelech 



9 

took sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and women servants, 
and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. 

In chap. xxiv. ver. 35, 36, we find God blessing Abraham 
and his son Isaac with a curse I according to the abolition dic- 
tionary. " And the Lord hatii blessed my master greatly, and 
he is become great : and he hath given him flocks, and iierds, 
and silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants, and 
camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife, bare a 
son to my master when she was old; and unto him hath he given 
all that he hath." 

In chap. xxvi. ver. 14, we find the Philistines envied or hated 
Isaac. How is it in this our day ? 

In chap. XXX. ver. 43 : " And the man increased exceeding- 
ly, and had much cattle, and maid servants, and men servants, 
and camels, and asses." Here appears to be proof that God 
did not disapprove of slavery; on the contrary, some hundreds 
of years afterwards, we find he permanently established it, 
through his law-giver Moses, and hence made it common to 
Christendom; and it is presumable he knew what he was doing, 
doubtless quite as well as our abolition brethren. 

Exodus, chap. xii. ver. 43-45 : " And the Lord saith unto 
Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover ; 
there shall no stranger eat thereof : But every man's servant 
that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then 
shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and a hired-servant shall not 
eat thereof." Here we find the Israelites owners of slaves di- 
rectly after they left Egypt ! and their slaves were privileged 
characters, compared to hired-servants. 

Chap. xxi. ver. 1-6 : " Now, these are the judgments which 
thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six 
years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for 
nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he 
were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4. If his master 
have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daugh- 
ters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he 
shall go out by himself. And if the servants shall plainly say, 
I love my master, my wife, and my children ; I will not go out 
free : Then his master shall bring him unto the judges ; he 
shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post : and 
his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall 
serve him forever." Moreover, we have the fiat of God for hold- 
ing the children, and consequently have no need of the old civil 
law maxim — '■'^ Partus sequiter ventrum." Let the 4th verse be 
particularly noticed by those who accuse the South of separa- 
ting man and wife. This institution we never had in this coun- 



10 

try. It seems to be a kind of penitentiary, or state prison 
system — they -were sold for debt and for crime. To allude to 
it, therefore, in argument against our slave institution, is only 
calculated to deceive, and hence fraudulent. 

The 16th verse has ever been an universal text with our ab- 
olition brethren — " And he that stealeth a man and selleth 
him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to 
death." But it is more than probable, had father Abraham 
caught one of them stealing away his slaves, he would have 
made a very different application to what they are in the habit 
of making. In the 20th and 21st verses the Jewish laws are 
much more lenient to the master than southern laws or practice, 
as there is abundant proof extant to show, if cavillers will take 
the trouble to look after it. " And if a man strike his servant, 
or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be 
surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two 
he shall not be punished, for he is his money." 

Leviticus, chap. xxii. ver. 10, 11 1 "There shall no stranger 
eat of the holy thing : a sojourner of the priest, or a hired ser- 
vant, shall not eat of the holy thing. But if the priest buy any 
soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in 
his house, they shall eat of his meat." Here we find the slave 
a privileged character again ; especially the souls belonging to 
the priest ! 

In chap. XXV. ver. 30 : " And if it be not redeemed within 
the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city 
shall be established for ever to him that bought it, throughout 
his generations ; it shall not go out in the jubilee." Here 
we find forever and jubilee are not synonymous — all that has 
been said to the contrary notwithstanding ! 

The following passage of Scripture is the Fiat of Omnipo- 
tence for the American institution of servitude — hence it is 
a divine institution. Let those who call it a SiN ! or an evil ! 
and quote the golden rule for its overthrow ! remember that it 
was ordained by the God and father of us all, " who is yester- 
day, to-day, and forever, one and the same" — and " whose eyes 
are too pure to behold iniquity" — the father of the Golden 
Rule, " and every good and perfect gift." Heed it well ! and 
forever bear in mind, that none oppose His commands, or 
set themselves up to be more holy than He, but the servants of 
the Evil One — Infidels, Blasphemers ! and whether they ap- 
pear as " angels of light," or in their own native deformity, 
" from such turn away !" 

Now let us hear what chap. xxv. verses 44-46 Leviticus, says 
upon this subject : " Both thy bond-men and thy bond-maids. 



11 

which thou shalt have, shall bo of the heathen (foreigners) that 
are round about you : of them shall ye buy bondmen and bond- 
maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do so- 
journ among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families 
that are with you, Avhich they begat in your land ; and they 
shall bo your possession, [pro|)crty — goods and chattels.] And 
ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, 
to inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your bondmen 
forever : but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall 
not rule over one another with rigor." Here we find the insti- 
tution we have in this country. And here we find that never- 
changing God says — Ye shall l)uy ! The command seems im- 
perative. Not, if ye buy, as in the xxi. chapter Exodus. And 
forever too, not six years, nor even to jubilee ! (There appears 
to be a vast difierence between law-givers and law-expounders, 
nowadays !) 

In examining the Old Testament, it struck me as a little sin- 
gular, that not a word is said as to the treatment of the perpe- 
tual servant, when there is so much in regard to the limited. I 
can only account for this, that the Deity, knowing man, knew 
that he would be good to his own, in fee. ^or it is said pro- 
verbially — "The devil even is good to his own." Again, the 
limited servant had a property-interest in himself ; hence, to 
put out an eye or break out a tooth, was a permanent injury, 
therefore it was commanded, as a remuneration, that he should 
be set free. But the Jews did not always do it, and hence were 
severely rebuked in the Iviii. chapter Isaiah. 

Deuteronomy, chap, xxiii. ver. 15 : " Thou shalt not deliver 
unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master un- 
to thee." 

This passage of Scripture has recently been laid hold of by 
some Rev. expounder of Holy writ, who published several let- 
ters in the New York Observer, in the summer of '49, to prove 
it unlawful to send back runaway slaves to their masters in the 
Southern States ! 

It is well known to every intelligent reader of the Bible, that 
God commanded the Israelites to go up and exterminate every 
living thing found upon the promised land. Hence to have sent 
back those poor runaways, who sought protection from the pend- 
ing destruction, and who were not parties to the quarrel, it 
would have been extreme cruelty and injustice — consequently 
this especial enactment in their favor. But instead of this spe- 
cial act proving, as a general thing, that runaway slaves were 
not to be sent back to their masters, even to foreigners, it proves 
the reverse ; else the enactment would have been superllous. 



12 

Lawyers well understand this ; and none but a knave or fool' 
can misunderstand or pervert it. Were it not so, why was 
Hagar sent back by God's order, when found upon the borders 
of her native country ? Can God do injustice, or violate his 
own laws ? Again, the inspired apostle Paul sent back Onesi- 
mus to his master, and why ? because he respected the master's 
rights of ownership; and, although a friend, and in great need, 
would not violate principle by retaining his servant without his 
permission. Moreover, how beautifully would such construc- 
tion contrast with the abundance of scripture I shall immediately 
quote, where slaves are commanded to be obedient to their mas- 
ters ? Alas ! What does D.D. mean ? It appears to mean 
nothing but Deuced Dunce or Diabolical Deceiver ! 

But our abolition brethren don't seem to like the Old Testa- 
ment — they call it the Jews' Bible ! That it is an awkward book 
for them, no one can well question, especially since the people 
have taken the trouble to look for themselves instead of taking 
their statements. But for their accommodation, let us turn to 
the New Testament and see what it says, and whether they 
will recognize its authority. 

THE "CURSE OF HAM." 

Men who either do not read the Bible at all, or who read it very carelessly, 
are prone to speak of the posterity of Ham as doomed by Jehovah to per- 
petual slavery. What endless changes have been rung upon the " accursed 
seed of Ham." But there is no such curse in the Bible, nor has any such 
curse ever been fulfilled upon the children of Ham, as such. Cush was the 
oldest son of Ham, and his son was Nimrod, the mightiest name of that dim 
antiquity, and the founder of that Assyrian empire which for ages ruled all 
western Asia, and which once and again carried terror into Palestine and 
Egypt. The growth of all this grandeur and power from cities founded by a 
grandson of Ham, and peopled by his descendants — a power that shook the 
earth, and whose memorials outlast the ages — surely does not verify the 
curse of perpetual bondage said to have been pronounced upon the posterity 
of Ham. The fact is, that no such curse was ever pronounced. 

Open the Bible at the 9th chapter of Genesis, and the 24th verse, and you 
there read that " Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger 
son had done to him; and he said, cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants 
shall he be to his brethren." 

Now Canaan was Ham's youngest son — as Ham himself was the youngest 
son of Noah — and the curse was pronounced upon Canaan by name, and is 
repeated three times. ' You, my youngest son, have put me to shame before 
your brethren; you shall feel the punishment of this in the degradation of 
your youngest son; he shall be put to shame before his brethren, and his pos- 
terity shall feel in their bones the curse of their dishonored ancestor.' 

Turning now to the 10th chapter of Genesis, (vv. 15-21,) we find the 
boundaries of Canaan's settlement accurately defined. It was the land after- 
wards so well known as the land of Palestine, reaching along the coast of 
the Mediterranean, from Sidon to Gaza, and eastward to Sodom and Go- 
morrah. None of the posterity of Canaan settled in Ethiopia. When, 900 
years after, the Israelites, the descendants of Shem, conquered the land of 
Canaan, and made hewers of wood and drawers of water of all who were 
not slain in battle, then was fulfilled that old prophetic denunciation: 
" Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." The 



13 

■only cuTse ever pronounced upon any of the posterity of Ham was fulfilled 
in the subjugation of the Canaanitcs by the Israelites, about 1500 years 
before Christ. And this, like all slavery in the earliest times, was the en- 
slavement of tchites. The institution of slavery in the East was not based 
"Upon a distinction of color. 

If ever you hear a man, even though he be styled a Doctor of Divinity, 
justifying African slavery from the curse denounced upon Ham, do you ad- 
vise him to go to the nearest Sabbath-school, till he can read and understand 
the Bible. 

Com. by A. P. — The posterity of Ham were accursed by 
Noah, in the person of Ham's youngest son, Canaan, who ia 
oonsidered by many to be the progenitor of the African. 

Much speculation has obtained first and last among learned 
philosophers as to the origin of the negro race. Some suppose 
them a race created especially for servants — to prevent a supe- 
rior race reducing to servitude their own brethren by their cob- 
web laws„the most abject poverty-stricken servitude imaginable, 
as they do, for instance, all over Europe at the present day — 
and that there is no more reason in supposing that they sprang 
from the same pair with the white race, than to suppose the 
jackass and Arabian steed sprang from the same pair ; for these 
are not more dissimilar. And that the passage of scripture which 
says, "All nations of the earth Avere created of one flesh 
and blood," proves nothing ; as animals with equal propriety 
might have been added, for they are flesh and blood as well as 
other folks. 

Others suppose them an hybrid, and that the old legend solves 
the problem, to wit : That a little daughter of Canaan, lost 
upon the Red sea, was found by an ourang-outang, who, 
fond of his protege, collected for her the various fruits of the 
forest, and in every way in his power administered to her com- 
fort and happiness — this won her affections ; and in process of 
time, their habits becoming greatly assimilated, the negro was 
the result ; and as proof of this, that the uncultivated negro, 
taken from the wilds of Africa, approaches as near the ourang- 
outang as to our species. Moreover, that it is the only expla- 
nation that can be given to the Oth chap. Gen. 25th ver., which 
otherwise remains unexplained. 

With all these speculations, however, I have nothing to do. My 
knowledge of the negro extends not beyond the limits of my own 
country. Here I find him in a comparatively highly cultivated 
and civilized state — a good servant-verj unlike most white hire- 
lings, compelled by their necessities to serve their afiluent bro- 
ther. If kindly treated, he is generally faithful and affection- 
ate, and serves his white master with delight. And be his ori- 
gin what it may, his introduction into the civilized and chris- 
tian society of a superior race, has greatly improved his con- 



14 

ditiou ; and by the occasional admixture of a little white blood, 
has in many instances become almost as shrewd and cunning 
as his wooden-nutmeg brethren ; and in some few instances 
seems practically to understand the true intent and meaning of 
the old Latin proverb : " Rem facias rem, recte, si posses ; si 
non, quociinque modo rem,'' as well as the best of them. 
SERVITUDE UNDER THE PATRIARCHS. 

As to the Patriarchs, the recorded fact that Abraham and Jacob had bond- 
servants is no more evidence that God approved of slavery, than the re- 
corded fact that each of these patriarchs had two wives is proof that God 
approves of bigamy, or the record, tvi^ice made, and without censure, that 
Abraliam equivocated about Sarah, is proof that the Bible sanctions lying. 

When we shall see a modern slaveliolder arm his 318 servants, and lead 
them hundreds of miles, over mountain, river, and desert, into a foreign and 
unsettled country, where no law or power can bind them to his service — 
when we shall see him thus heading his own trained and equipped household, 
for tiie rescue of an unfortunate kinsman, and dividing with them the spoils 
of war, we may begin to trace in that slaveholder some resemblance to the 
patriarch Abraham. Or when we shall see some modern planter commis- 
sioning his chief servant to go hundreds of miles beyond the reach of planta- 
tion laws, equipped with dromedaries and laden with jewels and gold — hav- 
ing every facility for escape — yet trusted to choose a wife for his master's 
son, and to negotiate the marriage-contract, then again we may discern the 
features of patriarchal slavery in the slavery of modern times. How palpa- 
ble it IS that Abraham did not hold his servants as chattel-slaves. He was 
himself but a sojourner in the land of Canaan. No local law would guard 
his rights as a master. 

But aside from the utter want of parallelism between domestic servitude 
under the patriarchs and modern chattel-slavery, shall we make no account 
of the greater light enjoyed in our times? It has been aptly said, that " if 
Abraham were now living among us, he would be put into the penitentiary 
for bigamy." Shall we go back to study morality in the twilight of the 
patriarchal age? Those modern slaveholders who seek to cover themselves 
with the mantle of the patriarchs, remind one of the ignorant and super- 
stitious peasantry of Italy, who, when their vines were blasted, offered a spe- 
cial prayer to the " most holy patriarch Noah," invoking his intercession, on 
the ground that he was the special patron ol the vine, and familiar with its 
qualities. If we are to copy the patriarchs in points where their example is 
not commended or enjoined in the Bible, then let us have the " patriarchal 
institutions " entire — inebriety, equivocation, deception, bigamy, polygamy, 
as well as slavery. Nay, nay. It is the glory of the Bible that it is so great, 
so good, so true in itself, so instinct with the sense of justice and of right, 
t hat it can afford to record, without comment, the failings of the best of men, 
.md leave us to judge these by its own infallible standard. 

Com. by A. P. — I cannot perceive any diiference between 
servitude under the Patriarchs and servitude at the present 
day, except such as may readily be accounted for by the progres- 
sion of the human family to a higher and still higher state of 
improvement. Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. 
Slaves were bought, and sold, and given as presents by the 
patriarchs, just as they are in our day, as we have shown by 
some of the texts quoted. 

A highly civilized, intelligent and refined society, cannot ex- 
ist without servants of some kind — and the difference between 



15 

purchasing and hiring, is just about the difference between buy- 
ing and hiring a horse ; the former is generally the best used. 
The Deity, knowing the nature of man, doubtless well under- 
stood this, or perhaps he would not have so unequivocally estab- 
lished the institution forever. And if our brethren of the free 
States would begin ewennow to keep God's commandments, and 
buy a number not to exceed the white members of their fami- 
lies, and at any age not above twenty years, then educate 
them — then the South could follow their example without the 
fear of incendiary pamphlets being sent among them — and I am 
sure no christian negro, if he read and understood the Bible, 
could disobey and run away, or in any way unfaithfully serve 
his master. How much more christian this course would be, 
than, while living in open violation of God's laws, trying to 
make a virtue for themselves by denouncing in the most savage 
manner their southern brethren who keep them, by buying as 
God lias commanded. 

THE MOSAIC CODE. 

The laws of Moses did not introduce slavery among the Jews. The story 
of Joseph is evidence that slavery then existed throughout Arabia and Egypt. 
In making laws for a semi-barbarous and intractable people, Moses suffered 
many things because of the hardness of their hearts. A careful study of his 
code demonstrates that " the Mosaic statutes respecting the relation of mas- 
ter and slave are obviously modifications and amendments of a previously- 
existing common-law, and are designed to meliorate the condition of the 
slave, to protect him from oppression, and to promote the gradual disuse and 
abolition of slavery." 

By that law, kidnapping, or the stealing of men to make them slaves, 
which was the origin of all the slavery in this country, was a capital crime. 
" He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in iiis hand, he 
shall surely be put to death. ^' 

By that law a fugitive slave was not to be returned to his master. By that 
law a slave maimed by his master, a female slave violated by her master, 
were entitled to freedom, and the master was held responsible for any act of 
severity to a slave. By that law slaves were to have the same religious 
privileges with their masters. By that law the Hebrew slave was set free 
every seventh year, and there was an emancipation of all poor and oppressed 
Israelites every fiftieth year. The ranks of slaves were recruited from 
thieves, debtors, and captives in war; but the slave was always treated as a 
person; the laws were altogether in his favor; and perpetual, unmitigated chat- 
telism, was a thing unknown among the Hebrews. 

The enslaving of the heathen was permitted to the Israelites under certain 
regulations. By the law of nations in the earliest times, they had a right to 
enslave or to kill all captives taken in war. The laws of Moses modified 
and humanized this bloody common law. And if the Israelites were allowed 
to hold bondmen from among the heathen with somewhat more rigor than 
they could hold a Hebrew servant, this, like the conquest and subjuga- 
tion of Canaan, was part of the special judgment decreed by Jehovah against 
idolaters, and inflicted through Israel as his chosen people. We laugh at 
the absurdity of those who would find in the command given to Joshua to 
exterminate the Canaanites, a divine warrant for the Puritans and their de- 
scendants to exterminate the aborigines from this continent. But is that any 
greater absurdity than the logic which finds, in a special and restricted per- 
mission given to the Hebrews to hold heathen bond-servants, a perpetugij 
divine warrant for chattel-slavery ? 



16 

Com. by A. P. — If the foregoing be true, what means sim- 
ply Leviticus 25, 44 to 46 inclusive? That slavery did exist 
under Moses (whether he instituted it or not) is evident from 
the laws he enacted to protect the slave and against kidnap- 
ping ; and though in his individuality the slave was treated as 
a person^ yet, as a chattel, he was liable to a change; of owner- 
ship, and could be bought, sold, or given away, whether as a 
criminal, a debtor, or a captive in war. 

LATER JEWISH LEGISLATION. 

The regulations of the Mosaic Code had their natural and designed efTect. 
They made the care of slaves so much a burden to the master, they made the 
rights of slaves so prominent and so valid, that even the mild and modified 
form of slavery tolerated by the Mosaic law, gradually died away. The 
fact that Solomon levied upon the remnant of the Canaanites for bond-ser- 
vice in building the Temple, shows that even his roll of "servants born in 
his house," could not have been great. There is no evidence that the He- 
brews in Palestine ever engaged in the foreign slave-trade^ The prophets 
denounced the abuses of slavery, and urged the abolition of the system. 

The traditionary Jewish laws upon this subject, codified by the pious and 
learned Maimonides, are instructive, as showing the increasing leniency of 
the system in the latter times of the Hebrew commonwealth. This code re- 
quired that an adult slave, purchased by a Hebrew from an idolater, should be 
circumcised; but this must be done with the free consent of the slave him- 
self; otherwise he must be returned to his heathen master. If voluntarily 
circumcised, he was entitled to the privileges of a proselyte in the house of 
Israel. The code required that the master should be kind to his slave, and 
not let his yoke weigh too heavy on him. " He must find him in sufficient 
meat and drink, and must not abuse him either by word or deed, nor rebuke 
him with rage; but must speak to him mildly, and must give him time to 
ofler his defence in case of culpability." 

How manifest is it that the slave was a person owing service, and not a 
mere piece of property. The law favored manumission or emancipation 
upon the soil, in a variety of ways. A converted slave, that is, a circum- 
cised Gentile, could claim his freedom of the magistrates if his master sold 
him to an idolater, or to a proselyte of the gate; or could assert his freedom 
by running away. Such a slave residing in Judea, recovered his freedom if 
his master sold him to any person whatever out of the land of Judea — even 
to a Jew in the adjacent parts of Syria. He could not be taken out of the 
land of Judea by his master without his free consent. The converted slave 
of a Hebrew residing in a foreign country, who escaped into Judea, must not 
be given up to his owner. Thus we see that the traditionary laws of the 
Hebrews, carrying out the spirit of the Mosaic code, tended to ameliorate 
the condition of bondmen, and finally to abolish all involuntary servitude, 
except for crime. 

Com. by A. P. — Slavery existed under the "Later Jewish 
Legislation," according to heathen historians, in a more miti- 
gated form than at any other epoch of ancient history. Yet 
it did exist, and it was not the institution that the prophets de- 
nounced, but the abuse of it ; and they commanded, " Let the 
oppressed go free." This referred to their own brethren held 
in bondage. 

SLAVERY IN THE TIME OF CHRIST. 
It is a fact worthy of notice in this connection, that the four gospels con- 
tain scarce one allusion to slavery as yet in existence among the Hebrews. 



17 

tn some of his parables our Lord draws his illustrations from servants, using 
the term doulos, which in the Greek classics ordinarily denotes a slave. 
But in the New Testament usage that term of itself proves nothing as to the 
nature of the service; and some of these very illustrations seem to forbid 
the idea of a 6onc/-servant. Only three cases are mentioned in the gospels of 
persons having servants who may be supposed to have been slaves; and but 
one of these is at all positive, namely: the Roman centurion, who held his 
servants by Roman law. The term doulos is applied to the servants of the 
Capernaum nobleman, and the servant of the high-priest whose ear Peter cut 
off; but beyond this indeterminate word nothing is intimated of the condition 
of either. 

Some have inferred from the silence of the gospels upon the subject, that 
slavery among the Hebrews had entirely ceased before the time of Christ. 
This is not quite correct; for an incident in the life of Gamaliel, the famous 
Rabbi of that day, shows that he had bond-servants; and sundry allusions it* 
the Mishna and in Josephus, show that slavery did exist to a limited extent 
among the Jews in Palestine till their expulsion under Hadrian. But it is 
certain that in the time of Christ very few slaves were held in Judea by He- 
brew masters. The Jews as a people were subjugated and impoverished; He- 
brews were no longer made slaves, except as a punishment for theft; and only 
the wealthy families, who in that agricultural country were comparatively 
few, could afford to purchase slaves of the Gentiles. Our Lord and his dis- 
ciples seldom came in contact with such families, and as his mission was dis- 
tinctively to the house of Israel, the few proselyted bond-servants living in 
comparative freeaom and ease in the houses of the great, would hardly come 
under his special notice. At the great marriage feast in Cana, where all 
were Jews, there were no slaves, but only luaiters, (diakonoi.) In the family 
of Lazarus, where Jesus was intimate, Martha did the house-work. 

The Savior made his teachings specific only with reference to evils that 
came immediately under his eye, while he laid down principles that apply to 
every form of evil. To sum up all, then, on this point, slavery existed 
among the Hebrews in Judea, in the time of Christ, much as it exists in New 
Jersey at this day. We learn from the census that there yet remain in that 
State 236 slaves; but one is hardly every reminded that slavery exists in New 
Jersey. As to the Romans in Judea, Christ seldom addressed specific instruc- 
tions to them upon any point whatever; but labored among his own nation. 
He is silent with respect to gladiatorial shows, to idolatrous rites, and the 
barbarities of war. Will any one infer that he approved of these .' We may, 
therefore, dismiss Hebrew servitude and its code as having virtually passed 
away at the date of the New Testament. It had so much declined in Pales- 
tine, was so far inoperative, that it had ceased to be conspicuous as an 
element in the social state of the Jews. 

COxM. BY A. P. — Mr. Thompson thinks it worthy of notice 
that the four gospels contain scarcely an allusion to slavery. 
This is not at all surprising. The four gospels are but the 
same history of our Savior, written by four of his immediate 
disciples, and could not be expected to go into details of the 
laws and institutions of his time. The apostles, however, make 
frequent allusions to the institution, as I have quoted in Ephe- 
sians, Colossians, Timothy, Luke, &c., and the Savior in no- 
where condemns it, but, through his disciples, gives some com- 
mands to both master and servant. (See texts before quoted.) 
ROMAN SLAVERY. 
That with which we have to do in the New Testament — that system with 
which the apostles came in contact, when they went forth from Judea to 
preach the gospel throughout the known world — was Roman slavery, which 

2 



w 

existed neither by natural law, nor by any divine appointment or sanctiow 
whatever, not even as derived from the books of Moses — for the Romans did 
not go to these for their institutions — but was purely a creature of the Roman 
law. 

What, then, was the origin of this slavery, and what were its essential 
features? Roman slavery was the fruit of military conquest. As the Ro- 
mans extended their territory, they found it necessary, in order to retain 
their conquests, to reduce to slavery the captives taken in war. The very 
term servus, a slave, is said by the code of Justinian to be derived from the 
fact that captives were preserved alive and sold, instead of being put to death. 
The conquered were considered as booty; and persons, as well as cattle and 
things, were distributed among the conquerers, or were sold for the benefit 
of the state. Hence, slaves came to be treated as cattle or chattels — capitaliar 
goods movable or immovable, such as flocks, herds, and other possessions; — 
a thing unknown in Hebrew law. After the final defeat of the Samnites by 
ihe Romans, 36,000 prisoners of war were sold as slaves. In the first Punic 
war, 20,000 prisoners were taken and sold. The victory over the CimbrL 
yielded 60,000 captives. The Gallic wars of Caesar are said to have fur- 
nished 400,000 prisoners for slaves. These were of various nations. Slavery 
was not then based upon distinction of color as marking an original infe- 
riority of race, according to the doctrine of recent times; it did not claim a 
divine sanction in the curse on Ham — the Romans knew nothing of Noah or 
his posterity; it was based solely upon power — the power of lawless violence 
to subdue numerical or physical weakness. 

The taste for idle luxury engendered by the sudden acquisition of large 
and fertile territories, and the creation of a servile class to cultivate without 
wages the immense estates of the wealthy citizens of Romf , encouraged 
also the foreign slave-trade as a branch of commerce. Not only was the in- 
terior of Africa ravaged to supply the market of Piome, but Asia Minor,. 
Sardinia, Spain, and Britain, yielded cargoes of slaves to build the public 
works of the capital, to serve her wealthy citizens, and to gratify the brutal 
passions of the mob by fighting with wild beasts in the arena. The island 
of Delos was the great centre of this traffic; bometimes 10,000 slaves were 
transhipped there in one day. 

Roman slavery made no distinction between the descendants of Ham and 
those of Shem and Japhet. It rested upon conquest. Slave merchants 
always accompanied the Roman armies. So many slaves were brought from 
Asia Minor as the spoils of war, that " PArj/g-ian " became as common a 
name for slave as " African " is in our day. When Cassar invaded Britain 
the taunt that the conquest was worthless was met by pointing to the slaves 
brought from that island — •' Not a scruple of silver; but many slaves. " Ro- 
man slavery made our ancestors its prey; though Cicero thought the Britons 
so inferior to the Asiatics, that they were not worth buying. I doubt not 
that in the monuments of ancient Rome that we now visit with curious eyes, 
in the ruins of temples, of aqueducts and basilica, and in the paved ways and 
arches of victory, are courses of brick and stone that were laid by the sweat 
and toil of our ancestors, during the four hundred years when British slaves 
were merchantable goods upon the Tiber. 

The growth of this system in the Roman republic is admirably portrayed 
by Bancroft, in his essay on " The Decline of the Roman People." The insti- 
tution of slavery, and the monopoly of land and labor, gradually deprived 
the country of that middling class between the extremes of wealth and pov- 
erty, which are the real strength of a nation. The Romans weni to war, 
leaving slaves to till the fields. " Instead of little farms studding the country 
with their pleasant aspect, and nursing an independent race, nearly all the 
lands of Italy were engrossed by large proprietors, and the plow was in the 
hands of the slave." All trades were acquired by them, and they were 
hired out by their masters for gain. 

Tiberius Gracchus, a pure-minded patriot, sought to remedy this evil by an 
Agrarian law. This much abused law was simply a homestead bill. " It 
was designed to create in Italy a yeomanry: instead of slaves, to substitute 



19 

free laborers; to plant liberty firmly in the land; to perpetuate the Roman 
Commonwealth, by identifying its principles with the culture of the soil." 
The wise law of Gracchus had met the approval of the people, and was to 
be decided by the senate. This body was made up of patrician slaveholders; 
yet some reasonable compromise was hoped for, even from them. But 
slavery, true to its instincts of violence, took up the bludgeon when argument 
failed. The reformer Gracchus, who had dared to assail the system, was 
beaten to death with clubs by its " gallant " defenders, upon the steps of the 
capitol, and his corpse was dragged through the streets and thrown into the 
Tiber. Modern chivalry has not even the poor merit of originality. 

Such was the bloody triumph of slavery in Rome. All the evils that 
Gracchus had predicted ensued. The bone and sinew of the nation perished 
in foreign wars, and Rome counted only aristocratic idlers, free paupers, and 
innumerable slaves. The lands were impoverished; work and trade were 
considered ignoble; and nearly all the business of society — its commerce, its 
trades, its arts, its amusements — all were conducted by slaves for the profit 
of their masters. Thus free .'abor was rooted out by a ruinous competition. 
Then followed servile wars; and thus the way was paved lor that despotism 
which renders the names of Tiberius and Nero forever execrable. Slavery 
sucked the life-blood of the Roman republic. Let not the history of her 
fate be the prophecy of ours. 

Since Roman slavery originated in force, its radical idea was the right of 
the strong to oppress and degrade the weak. Hence, from the outset, it dif- 
fered from slavery among the Hebrews in this — that while the Hebrew law 
of servitude regarded the slave as a person under limited obligations to his 
master, the Roman regarded him as a thing, a chattel, entirely at his master's 
disposal. Let this distinction be carefully noted. It is the radical distinc- 
tion between the slavery which had obtained among the Hebrews, but had 
almost ceased to be in the time of Christ, and the Roman slavery which 
everywhere met the eye of the apostles in their missionary tours. Cicero 
and other Roman publicists of the first authority, in their definition of the 
termserri, include horses and mules as well as slaves; and by the Roman law 
slaves were taxed in the property of the master, along with houses, lands, 
beasts, and bronze money. 

Liddell, one of the most careful writers upon Roman history, thus de- 
scribes the condition of the Roman slaves: " They had no civil rights; they 
could not contract legal marriage; they had no power over their children; 
they could hold no property in their own name; their very savings were not 
their own, but held by consent of their masters; all law proceedings ran in 
the name of the master. For crimes committed they were tried by the pub- 
lic courts, and the masters were held liable for the damage done, but only to 
the extent of the slave's value. To kill, maim, or maltreat a slave, was con- 
sidered as damage to his master, and could only be treated as such. No pain 
or sufi'ering inflicted on a slave was punishable, unless loss had thereby ac- 
crued to the owner." Says Bancroft: " In the eye of the law, a slave was 
nobody. No protection was afforded his limb or his life, against the avarice 
or rage of his master; the female had no defence for her virtue and her 
honor; the ties of affection and blood were disregarded." 

This is chattelism; these are laws not for persons, but for chattels; not for 
men, but for things. We have seen that the Hebrew law cared for the slave — 
protected his person, gave him redress against injuries inflicted by the mas- 
ter, and especially guarded the sanctity of marriage and of female virtue. 
The Roman law reversed all this. There was no legal marriage among 
slaves; the children of the mother were born to her condition; a slave could 
not testify in court; if a master was slain in his house, by an unknown hand, 
all his slaves were put to death without trial. Tacitus narrates an instance 
in which four hundred slaves were put to death, on the suspicion that one of 
them had murdered his master. 

One could hardly believe the cruelties said to have been inflicted upon 
slaves, had not Roman slavery survived to our time, to witness against itself. 
The whip was always at hand. If a slave spoke or coughed without permis- 



20 

sion, he was flogged. If a maid committed the least blunder in the toilet of 
her mistress, her back must feel the thong or the heated iron. Scourges 
loaded with lead, or furnished with prongs, the yoke, the brand, the pincers, 
the rack, were common modes of torture. There were torturers by profes- 
sion, to vvliom masters sometimes sent their slaves for the refinements of 
cruelty. Cato, the moralist of Rome, was accustomed to exercise himself, 
after supper, by flogging such of his slaves as had not wailed properly upon 
the table. Worn-out slaves were turned out to die. Sometimes a slave was 
crucified or burnt alive, at the caprice of his master. 

Such was Roman slavery, and this is the slavery which, in its essential 
feature of chattelism, and with mariy of its horrid incidents, has been trans- 
mitted to our times, and exists upon our soil. There was, however, one re- 
lief in th(- ancient system, which is wanting in its modern representative. 
Jn the earlier history of Rome the manumission of slaves upon the soil was 
frequent. Masters were accustomed to reward favorite slaves with their 
freedom, and these /?-ee(Znie?i had civil rights; some of them even became 
eminent as poets, artisans, and statesmen, fjven the barbarism of Rome did 
not make expatriation a condition of emancipation. About the year of Rome 
430, personal slavery for debt was abolished by law. 

Such was slavery as it existed in the time of Christ and his apostles ; a 
creature of the Roman law, the offspring of force, and sustained by cruelty 
and terror. 

Com. by A. P. — The slavery among the Romans was char- 
acterized by the most extreme absolutism on the part of the 
master and the most debased and abject servitude on the part 
of the slave. It is not, by any means, to be compared with the 
slavery in our Southern States ; for it is well known that at 
the South the master is liable to the death penalty for taking 
the life of his slave, and is severely punished for treating him 
with cruelty. Of course there are instances where, notwith- 
standing the law, great cruelty is practised; and so, also, as well 
at the North, as elsewhere, there occur instances of great cru- 
elty in the relation of husband and wife and parent and child ; 
but these cases are exceptions. The slaves of the Romans were 
captives in war, and often superior as soldiers, statesmen and 
philosophers, to those whom fortune made their masters, and 
they were generally of the same color ; but the slaves of the 
South are an inferior and degraded race, and of a different 
color from their owners. In the course of their bondage they 
are in each generation improving, as if Providence designed, 
through the probation of their servitude, finally to christianize 
and civilize their race. 

DID CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES SANCTION SLAVERY.? 

II. The question now arises, did Christ and the Apostles sanction this sys- 
tem ? I might well leave it to your moral sense to answer that question The 
Bible disciplines our moral sense to the intent that we may judge of right and 
wrong without the aid of specific precepts. Apply that moral sense to the case 
before us. You see what was Roman slavery. Do you believe — can you be- 
lieve — dare you so much as harbor the thought that Christ and his Apostles 
ever comW have sanctioned such a system? You know better. Everyman 
who has a conscience knows better. 

Yet it is argued that they did sanction this Slavery, because they are si- 
lent as to the system and its evils, and because they gave instructions to those 



21 

wlio were in the relation of master and slave, as constituted by the Rotnan 
law. 

These arg-utnenis were urged upon the floor of the General Assembly, 
(New School,) at its session in New York, in May, 1856. 

Said a Southern divine, and a Northern one echoed it: " I affirm that slavery 
is one of the social relations of men. It is like husband and wife, parent and 
child, older and younger, teacher and scholar, magistrate and citizen, merchant 
and clerk, captain and soldier, sovereign and people. These relations of life 
are expressly ordained of God; or they exist in that social economy which 
is the result of Divine Providence. In all these there is service. This ser- 
vice is found to be either voluntary or involuntary, and, as to duration, brief 
or protracted. There is either restraint or liberty in them all. In them all 
there is a liability to oppression. The common talk of oppression in the re- 
lation of master and slave is just as applicable to all these social relations." 

Such was the language uttered by ministers of Christ in that Assembly. 
Is it true? Is this the Gospel of the grace of God ? 

In reply to this argument, I take the position that, in defining the duties 
of master and servant, the New Testament nowhere admits the rightfulness 
of Roman slavery under the law of God. 

With respect to the alleged silence of Christ and his Apostles upon slavery 
•and its evils, I remark first, that they were not wholly silent on that subject, 
and secondly, that their silence gives no sanction to the system. 

We have already seen that Christ hardly came in contact with the institu- 
tion of slavery — for it was no longer prominent among the Jews to whom his 
mission was mostly confined. He laid down general principles; but com- 
mented only on specific evils that existed around him. And yet Christ laid 
the axe at the root of slavery, as at the root of despotism, in his first ser- 
mon at Nazareth when he said: " I am come to preach glad tidinps to the 
poor; to preach deliverance to the captives; to set at liberty them that are 
bound; to proclaim a jubilee from God." 

Christ bore witness against Slavery when he denounced all pride and am- 
bition, covetousness and oppression of the poor. Christ reasserted the unity 
of the race; the equality of all men before God. Here-enacted the law of 
Sinai, " Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself;" and expounded this by the 
precept, "'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them." Who ever heard of an advocate of slavery so in love with the system, 
that he would have others do to him as he does to the helpless slaver 

Was James silent when he said: "Go to, ye rich men, weep and howl for 
your miseries that shall come upon you. Behold the hire of the laborers 
who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; 
and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the 
Lord of Sabbaoth." Are these cries of the oppressed that pierce the 
heavens and reach the ear of God — silence ? Was Paul silent when he said : 
■"The law is made for murderers, for adulterers, for men-stealers, for liars, 
for perjurers, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doc- 
trine, according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God ?" 

But he was silent, it is said, as to the abolition of slavery. " He did not 
■denounce it as an evil or a sin." Did he therefore sanction the system.' 
The argument proves too much. If silence as to slavery argues an approval 
of the system, then silence as to its enormities argues an approval of these 
as a part of the system; and silence as to other organic laws and evils in the 
Roman Empire argues that these also were sanctioned, or at least allowed. 
Here, then, let us consult facts in other relations. 

Com. by A. P. — If Christ did not sanction slavery, neither 
did he condemn it. As I have shown, through hi 5 disciples he 
gave laws for the conduct of both master and slave. His mis- 
sion was to the souls of men ; he did not meddle with their 
temporal government, or the ''peculiar institutions" of their 
social life. 



The domestic code of rome. 

in the Roman empire arbitrary i/ower was not vested only in the Iioldei 
of slaves. Every Roman father possessed that power equally with the 
master. When a child was born, it was left to the father to decide whether 
it should live or die. The infant was placed upon the ground. If the father 
took it up; he signified his intention to rear it; if he let it lie, it wa.^ exposed 
in the street or by the river to perish, or to be taken up by some stranger^ 
who might then claim it as his slave. If the father claimed the child, his 
power over him was as absolute as that of the master over the slave-, 
and it continued through life unless the son was formally emancipated, and 
made a citizen. The earnings of the son could be claimed by the father, 
who had also the right to scourge his son, to sell him into slavery, to im- 
prison him, to banish him, to put him to death. 

This was the relation of father and son by Roman law. Gibbon thus de- 
scribes it: " In the forum, the senate, or the camp, the adult son of a Roman- 
citizen enjoyed the public and private rights of a person; in his father's 
house he was a mere thing; confounded by the laws with the movables, the 
cattle and the slaves, whom the capricious master might alienate or destroy,- 
without being responsible to any earthly tribunal. At the call of indigence 
or of avarice, the master of a family could dispose of his children or his 
slaves. According to his discretion, a father might chastise the real or im- 
aginary faults of his children by stripes, by imprisonment, by exile, by 
sending them to the country to work in chains among the meanest of his- 
servants. The majesty of a parent was armed with the power of life and 
death; and the example of such bloody executions, which were sometimes 
praised and never punished, may be traced in the annals of Rome beyond 
the times of Pompey and Augustus. 

Nor was this all. The husband had much the same power over the wife, 
which the master had over the slave, and the father had over the son. In 
law the wife was nothing. The husband, if he fancied himself injured, could" 
inflict corporeal punishment upon his wife, and if she was guilty of wine- 
drinking or infidelity, with certain formalities he could put her to death. 
Indeed, the authority of the husband over the wife in pagan Rome was quite' 
up to the notions of some modern divines as to a husband's rights. 

Such was the family despotism which existed in the Roman Empire in the 
time of Christ end his apostles. And yet the New Testament is entirely 
silent with respect to this bloody code of domestic law. Nowhere in that 
book can you find a command, " Husbands do not whip or kill your wives;" 
nowhere can you find a command, " Fathers, do not scourge your sons, nor 
sell or torture them, nor send them into exile, nor put them to death. "^ 
Nowhere do you find a protest against this domestic tyranny of law and cus- 
tom as contrary to the Gospel of Christ. Nowhere do you even find an al- 
lusion to it as an evil to be done away. What then.' Did Paul sanction that 
horrible tyranny of the husband and the father .> Dees his silence respecting 
the Roman law of domestic life show that he either approved or tolerated 
that law .' Is that your logic ? 

Remember that this tyranny of the husband over the wife, and of the 
father over the son, was just as much established by law, as was the power of 
the master over the slave. If, therefore, the silence of the Apostle as to 
slavery and its evils is an evidence that he sanctioned Roman Slavery, then 
his silence as to this household despotism is evidence that he sanctioned that. 
We are told, that "there were 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire, and- 
yet Paul says nothing against slavery." So were there millions of wives 
and sons in that empire, living under domestic tyranny, and yet he says 
nothing of their oppressions. And yet there was never a more flagrant vio- 
lation of the law of God than the Roman law of the family. The defence 
of Roman Slavery from the alleged silence of the New Testament concerning" 
it, proves too much, and falls to the ground. 

In the time of Paul the brutal sports of ihe arena were common in the 
Roman empire. Trained gladiators, or captives and criminals, were set to' 
♦ight wild beasts or to fight one another in the amphitheatre, for th« amuse 



•28 

"kiient of the multitude. Paul was perfectly familiar with these gladiatorial 
shows; indeed, some suppose that he himself was once compelled to fight 
with beasts at Ephesus. He sometimes draws his illustrations of the Christian 
warfare from these contests of ttic gladiators. Yet he is silent as to the bar- 
barous tendencies of such sports. Did he therefore sanction thern? Is that 
jour logic ? 

Com. by A. P. — "The Domestic Code of Rome" has nothing 
whatever to do Avith the question of slavery among us. As Mr. 
Thompson speaks of it, he but conveys a little bit of historical 
information, familiar to every schoolboy. The social relations 
of the semi-barbaric ancients cannot be brought into parallel 
with modern civilization and Christianity. 

NO RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE IN ROME. 

Slavery in the Roman Empire existed by virtue of the civil law. But in 
the time of the Empire, the peopl-e had no voice in making the laws, and 
•could do nothing whatever to change or abolish them. This rested solely 
with the Emperor. And in the time of Paul, freed men had come to be re- 
garded by slaveholders as a nuisance, and restraints were imposed upon 
masters who might wish to emancipate their slaves. In the reign of Nero 
surely, the people had no sovereignty, no elective franchise, no logislativ« 
power. They were restrained in their personal liberties, so that there was 
almost nothing which they could do legally for the removal of slavery. In 
^uch circumstances silence does not imply assent. Besides, the epistles of 
-the New Testament were not tracts published to act upon society at large, 
but manuscript letters sent to little companies of persons to instruct them in 
their duties. Hence we are not to look to them for a general discussion o^f 
public affairs. 

This consideration has great significance. We are apt to conceive of the 
New Testament in primitive times, as being before the public much as it is 
in our day; forgetting not only that it was not then a printed book, but also 
that it was no-t even a book reduced to form by the final arrangement of the 
'sacred Canon. The Apostles wrote letters to local assemblies of believers, 
which were composed generally of poor and uninfluential persons, and these 
letters were first read in these assemblies, and then copies were multiplied 
by hand. Keeping in view th-e persons whom they addressed and their ob- 
ject in writing, we cease to wonder at their omission of many topics relating 
<o society at large. 

Com. by A. P. — The above has nothing to do with the ques- 
tion at issue. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO SERVANTS. 

But it is said that the apostles give instructions to parties in the relation of 
master and slave, and thereby give an implied sanction to slavery itself. Pre- 
cisely the opposite of this is true. Whatever instructions they give to par- 
ties implicated in the system, they nowhere admit the rightfulu'css of slavery 
under the law of God, but often imply the contrary. 

In prescribing the relative duties of husbands and wives, and of parents 
and children, the New Testament distinctly sets forth the divine authority 
of marriage and the parental relation. In giving instructions to rulers and 
subjects, the New Testament teaches the divine authority of civil govern- 
ment, though it does not give a divine right to particular rulers or to par- 
ticular forms of government. 

But in giving instructions to mastei-s and servants the New Testament does 
not speak of slavery as existing by the appointment or authority of God ; 
you cannot find in these instructions one word in vindication of slavery, or 
•one word in approval of the relation of master and slave as a desirable rela> 



iion for either party. They are simply told how to conduct themselves in ii 
relation established by laws above their control. This omission is sig- 
nificant. 

Let us see now, how far these apostolic precepts look toward an approval 
of slavery. "Art thou called b«ing a servant.'" Does the grace of God 
come to you in the lowly condition of a bondman ? " Care not for that." 
Do not fret and chafe that you, who are called to be a son of God and an 
heir of heaven, called to sit with Christ and to judge angels, are here held 
in bondage by a fellow-man; abide patiently in your lot. " But if thou 
mayfst be free " — if you have the opportunity to gain your freedom — " USE 
IT RATHER " Does that look like a sanction of slavery ? 

Paul had no such opinion of the happy lot of a slave as to advise him to 
continue thankfully in that condition, if he could change it. Peter says : 
" Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, (that is, the fear of 
God:) not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this i& 
thankworthy, if a man for conscience' sake toward God, endure grief, si/J^er- 
ing wrongfully." Does that look like an approval of the system ? Then did 
the apostle approve of the conduct of Pilate and the Jews towards Christ, 
whom he holds up to those abused slaves as an example of patience in suffer- 
ing. His argument to the servant is not based at all upon the lawfulness or 
desirableness of his lot, but upon the example of Christ. " Because Christ 
also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye follow in his steps." 

There is a tone of compassion in all the instructions of the apostles to ser- 
vants, which is far from indicating an approval of slavery. They did not 
meet in ecclesiastical assemblies to argue the advantages of a state of servi- 
tude; how good a thing it is that such poor, ignorant creatures have masters 
to care for them; how superior their lot is to that of the freemen around them; 
no, when the apostles speak of servants, there is a tone of humanity toward 
such as are in bonds; they address them as in a condition hard to be bornej 
but since the providence of God — mark, not the moral preference but the 
providential will of God, which suffers so much evil in the world — since this 
suff'ers them to be in that condition, they should be meek, and patient, and 
faithful, " that by well doing they may put to silence the scandal of foolish 
men " about the licentiousness of the gospel. They were not to lie or steal, 
or be idle, because they felt themselves to be oppressed; they were to obey 
even hard masters, not because the law of God had set these masters over 
them, not because God had instituted slavery and put them in bondage as the 
best possible condition for them and their children; not because God approv- 
ed of that condition; but because as Christians they were bound, in whatso-' 
ever state they were, to honor Christ and his cause. If a christian was a 
prisoner, he must honor Christ as Paul did in his bonds; and if he were a 
slave, he must do the same. John Bunyan must not lie or kill his keeper be- 
cause he is cast into Bedford jail; he must be a well-behaved prisoner. Wa& 
his imprisonment therefore just? 

Did Christ indorse the administration of Herod and Pilateby paying tribute 
money? Did Paul indorse the bloody reign of Nero, by exhorting christians 
to be peaceable, law-abiding citizens? No more does he indorse Roman 
slavery by the instructions he gives to servants. On the contrary he con- 
demns that system in the very tone of these instructions: " Servants, be 
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh." Why? Be- 
cause they have bought you and have a right to your services? Because they 
have reared you and taken care of you? Because the law requires this of 
you ? Because you have no rights as men ? Because God has set up slavery 
for your good ? No, but " as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God 
from the heart; with good will doing service to the Lord — and not to men. "^ 
They are to ennoble the lowly condition in which they are placed, with the 
dignity of the christian doing in all things the will of God. Where is slavery 
approved, where is the Roman law of slavery admitted to be right by the 
law of God in any counsel or instruction given to those in that relation? Nay,- 
the foundation of that whole system, which was CHATTELISM, is knocked 
away by every precept that addresses the slave as a MAN, bought with the 
blood of Christ and accountable to God. The servant is brought under 
moral responsibility, which a chattel cannot feel. 



26 

INSTRUCTIONS TO MASTERS. 

111. But there are instructions to masters as well as to slaves, and tli6s0 
lead me to my last position; namely, that by ignoring the Rom in law of sla-" 
very, and placing both master and servant under the higher law of Christ'art 
love and equality, the Apostles decreed the virtual abolition of slavery, and 
did in time subdue it, wherever Christianity gained the ascendency in socie-' 
ty or in the state. 

Christianity was a kingdom within a kingdom. Penetrating through all 
forms of government and of society, it gave its law directly to the soul; and 
then, working from the individual outward, it leavened and renovated socie- 
ty and its institutions. It did not work by social revolution as a means to an 
end, but produced social revolution as a necessary consequence of its trans- 
formation of the individual. But it is a great fallacy to suppose that because 
the result to be effected by Christianity was gradual and remote, therefore the 
principle tending to that result was left to a gradual development. The prin- 
ciple which should regulate societyj and which in time would reform society 
in the mass, was laid down at the outset as the supreme law for the indi-' 
Vidual. 

Because the process of social transformation must needs be slow, the ne- 
cessity for that transformation, and the principles by which it must be ef- 
fected, were not left to be gradually discovered in the future. No individ- 
val was suffered to hide himself under the shadow of society; to plead that 
an evil or abuse with which he was implicated was a social evil that time 
must cure, and to take advantage of the delay in reforming society, to in-* 
dulge a little longer his own complicity with the wrong. No; the law that 
was to permeate and revolutionize society was given as a law to the individual 
believer, the moment he entered the kingdom of God. He could not cross 
the threshold of that kingdom until he bowed his will to the supremacy oi' 
that law. 

THE LAW OF CHRIST. 

The Apostles have nothing to say specifically against the abuse of wives by 
their husbands^ or of children by their parents; they do not legislate against 
specific evils of slavery, or against the system as a whole. Why ? Because 
they and their Master have given to every christian a law which renders all 
such acts incompatible with fellowship in the kingdom of God. Paul does 
not assail the Roman code; he does not blindly butt against what he could 
not move; but he gives to Christians a law that lifts them out of the pale of 
that code in all their intercourse with one another. They must still live un- 
der Roman law, and make the best of it; but that is not to be their shield. 
" Dare any of you, having a matter against another, to go to law before the 
unjust and not before the saints?" How could a Christian take advantage oi 
the Roman law to enslave another, or to exact of him unrequited labor? 
The rights of master and servant must be adjusted, not before the heathen, 
but before the saints; not by the Roman slave code, but by the law of Christ. 
And what was that law ? " ONE is your Master, even Christ, and ALL YE 
ARE BRETHREN." "A new commandment I give to you, that ye love 
one another; even as I have lored you, that ye also love one another." 

Christians were a peculiar people. They formed a spiritual society apart 
from the world — fellow-citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. In this 
relation they ceased to be under the Roman law as their source of right or 
rule of action. Hence the relation of master and servant was at once lifted 
out of the plane of the civil law into the higher plane of christian love. The 
outward relation constituted by law might not cease, it might not be possible 
legally to terminate this, but the essence of slavery was abolished by the 
fundamental law of Christianity. 

See how the Gospel transforms this Roman chattel into a christian mani 
"Masters, render to your servants that which is just and equal." Treat 
them as your equals in all the essential rights of men — as husbands, as 
fathers, as laborers worthy of their hire, as rational and immortal souls, give 
to them EQUALITY. These words are the death-blow of Roman chattel- 



2B 

fjlavery. They are good where slavery does not exist— for every relation of 
master and servant; but they abolish slavery at a stroke. And these words 
are enforced by a solemn reference to the judgment — " knowing that both 
your and their Master is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with 
Him." And then, on the other hand, the servant made free by the Gospel 
is not to plume himself on tliat, nor to set himself on his dignity; but to be 
voluntarily humble and faithful in his position, not quitting a master because 
that master is declared to be his equal. " They that have believing masters> 
let them not despise them because they are brethren." How could a chattel 
despise its owner? How would that caution sound in the ears of modern 
slaveholders? What Southern church would tolerate such an exhortation to 
its slaves? 

Hear now the decree of the Apostle Paul for the abolition of slavery: 
"As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You 
are all alike covered with Christ's righteousness and radiant with his glory. 
Each and every one of you is Christ. And now shall the Christ kere oppress 
and injure the Christ there ? Shall one soul, made bright with the glory of 
Christ, soil and trample under foot that glory in another? Nay, ye have each 
and all put off self and put on Christ; there is neither Jew nor Greek — there 
are no favorites in this spiritual commonwealth; there is neither bond nor 
free — no distinctions of caste are here allowed; there is neither male nor fe- 
male — no tyranny of the stronger sex over the weaker, no special privileges 
whatever in this kingdom; for ye are all GIVE in Christ Jesus." Truly has 
it been said that " this law of Christ was the law of laws. Its authority 
was imperial. Its decision was ultimate. Where the law of the empire 
was at variance with the law of Christ, who can doubt to which Christians 
would yield the supremacy?" 

RESULTS AND DUTIES. 

The principle of equality which the New Testament lays down for the gov- 
■ernmentof its disciplesjwroughtoutthe abolition of slavery first in the Roman 
church, and by the church throughout the Roman Empire. According to 
Neander: "Christian masters looked upon their servants no longer as slaves; 
but as their beloved brethren. They prayed and sang in company; they could 
sit at each other's side at the feast of brotherly love, and receive together 
the body of our Lord." Church laws were made in favor of slaves. Even 
the sacred vessels of the church were sold for their redemption; and in the 
reign of Constantine the emancipation of slaves was performed as a religious 
act in the churches and on the Sabbath. Guizot testifies that " the spirit 
and genius of Christianity abolished slavery throughout the world," and 
even Gibbon admits the facts, though he withholds from Christianity its 
meed of praise. The law of Christ is a law of emancipation. 

What, then, is the applicationof this law to our circumstances and times? 
The system of slavery which exists in this country is the Roman system of 
chattelism. It does not descend from the patriarchs or the Israelites. It ori- 
ginated in lawless violence; it is upheld by force and terror. This system 
is as incompatible with Christianity as was the slavery that existed in Apos- 
tolic times. It is radically hostile to the Gospel of Christ. What then is 
the duty of Christians toward it? Those who live where the system exists, 
are bound to free themselves and their churches from all connection with the 
system of chattelism and/o?-cc(i service. They may not be able at once to do 
away with the law of slavery in the State; but they should practically abol- 
ish in the church the distinction of bond and free, and give to the slave his 
equal rignts as a man. Till Christians at the South do this, are they not re- 
sponsible for the sin of the system of slavery? 

"We ask this in all Christian candor and charity; and we ask them to do no 
more than Christians at the North have done. When Newport, R. 1., was a 
centre of slavery and the slave trade, and the wealth of its citizens came 
mainly from that source, the churcJi of Dr. Samuel Hopkins passed this re- 
solve. " That the slave trade and the slavery of the Africans as it has taken 
Jilace among us, is a gross violation of the righteousness and benevolence 



21 

V'hich are so much inculcated in the Gospel; and therefore we will hot t6le' 
rate it in this church." And the church, in face of society, carried out that 
resolution in its discipline. When Southern churches practically cohie up 
to that standard, slavery will speedily cease. 

But WE also have a duty in this matter. Except so far as hy political at' 
ecclesiastical action we have sanctioned it, we are not indeed responsible for 
slavery where it is; we cannot intermeddle with it by positive legislation; 
we must have large charity for those who are in it; we must not judge (hem 
by our light. We must speak to them always in Christian love. 

But whatever allowance we make for those who are involved in the sys- 
tem by law, custom or inheritance, we can make none for those who would 
carry it to curse a soil now free; and we can make no excuse for ourselvc? 
if we do not our utmost to hinder that. Excuse ! Suppose jou were asked 
to join in a foray to capture slaves in Africa, could you find an excuse for 
that.' Suppose a party who hud done this should ask you to participate in 
the spoils, and to gite your influence to keep in slavery those whom they had 
seized. Could you find an excuse for that.' Never could you excuse your- 
self if you did not repudiate and oppose the outrage. Just such an outrage 
you, as a citizen of the United States, are asked to sanction. Can you excuse 
yourself if you do not your utmost to hinder it .' 

No question of practical Christianity is so imperative upon us to-day as 
this. Christianity and slavery cannot live together. They have now met 
face to face upon a virgin soil. We know that in the end Christianity must 
triumph. We know that slavery must go down; but this nation, like Rome, 
may first go down in the struggle. The prayers and efforts of Christians 
alone can avert a catastrophe which the madness of rulers is hastening on. 
You cannot make this a question of party measures or of political expedien-' 
cy. It is a question of vital, practical Christianity between your soul and 
God. If you thrust it aside, it will haunt you in night dreams; and it will 
face you in "That Day." The day shall come when all party platforms, 
measures and resolutions shall be burnt with firej and all human work and 
institutions shall be dissolved. Then shall you stand face to face with the 
slave before Him who is no respecter of persons. The question then wil{ 
be: " What did you to secure for this man the blessings of freedom and of 
the Gospel ? When the destiny of millions trembled on the slip of paper 
you cast into the ballot-box, how did you decide that destiny .' Beware 
lest the sentence come : " Inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these my 
brethren, ye did it not to me. Depart from me) ye workers of iniquity." 

Com. by A. P.. and Reflections on Slavery, &c. — I have 

before shown the instructions of Christ to masters and servants 

and the laws he promulgated for their government. As to the 

equality which he asserted, it was the equality of souls in the 

sight of heaven, not the equality of men upon earth, for — 

" Order is heaven's first law, and that confess'd. 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest." 

The laws of Christ are divine laws for the government of the 
souls of men, and not for the control of their bodies. When 
he said " one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are breth- 
ren," he spoke in a spiritual sense and had no reference to 
physical relationship. 

I have cited, I believe, all the passages of scripture in the Old 
and New Testaments, of any importance, that touch directly 
upon the subject under consideration — enough, at any rate, one 
would think, to satisfy the most skeptical, that slavery is a Di- 
vine Institution recognized and established by God's own or- 



28 

lier. He says, ye shall buy — our brother abolitionists say, ye 
shall not 1 He commands slaves to be obedient to their mas- 
ters ; to serve with fear and trembling ; not to purloin ; and to 
serve the froward as well as the good. But our abolition brethren 
teach us to disobey — -steal their master's horses and run to Ca- 
nada ! and to aid them in disobeying God's laws, they raise 
large sums of money, and then boast through the newspapers 
of the amount of theft they have practised upon their southern 
brethren in the course of a year ! ! 

Now allow me to ask, which is the best of the two authorities 
I have cited? *' Ye cannot serve two masters;" therefore, 
" Choose you this day whom ye shall serve !" " He that is not 
for me is against me !" " Bitter and sweet water cannot run 
from the same fountain !" 

After all this, does it not appear strange that these same 
counter-teachers to God, to Christ, and the Apostles, still claim 
to be christians ? nay, the very ne plus ultra of christians ! ! and 
turn up their nose with as much nonsavory against the venera- 
ble clergy of the South, whose shoe latchet they are not worthy 
to unloose, and to those of the North, who will not " follow the 
multitude to do evil," as the Scribes, Pharisees, Chief Priest, 
&c. did against our Saviour and his disciples, and prate as loud- 
ly of the golden rule as though they alone understood it and 
kept it perfectly ! Doubtless they think it a great pity that some 
one of the fraternity had not been present when the Supreme co- 
venanted with that chief of sinners, old Father Abraham, to have 
given the true interpretation thereof ! and so on down to Mo- 
ses and the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles. " Oh ! that 
my eyes were a fountain of tears." Had it so happened, what 
a world of grunting and groaning, self-glorification, hallucina- 
tion, it would have saved ! 

I will mention one or two passages of scripture, which I would 
most affectionately commend to their especial attention, and ar- 
dently hope they may profit by their careful contemplation, to 
wit : 

II Corinthians, chap. xi. ver 13-15 : " For such are false apos- 
tles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles 
of Christ. And no marvel ; for Satan himself is transformed 
into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his 
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, 
whose end shall be according to their works." 

II Timothy, chap. iii. ver. 8-9 : "Now as Jannes and Jam- 
bres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth ; men of 
corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall 
proceed no further : for their folly shall be manifest unto all 



29 

men, as theirs also was." These will prove the balm of Gilead 
to them if they be wise. 

Were there other passages of scripture sufficiently strong to 
overturn the multitude I have cited, what would the Bible be 
good for ? It would be fit for neither Church or State ! and 
believe me, if our clergymen teach the people that it can be 
made to blow hot or cold at the pleasure of the piper, the day is 
not far distant when the people will reject it as of no authority 
on any subject, and clergymen will soon follow as equally use- 
less. One run-mad leader has already rejected it, if I am cor- 
rectly informed, and now calls for the abolition of the Sabbath ; 
There is but one more step to Fanny Wrightism. 

Had it not been for the institution of slavery, all the negroes 
in this country, both bond and free, civilized and christianized,, 
if alive, would this day be slaves in their own native country, 
their bodies to black tyrannical masters, and their souls to the 
devil, through the worship of cats and aligators ; and the colo- 
ny of Liberia, which is destined, in the providence of God, to 
civilize and christianize all Africa, never heard of. 

Now allow me to ask, who have been the means of confer- 
ring this great blessing upon the African race — the northern 
abolitionist or the southern planter ? And if it be a christian 
act to better the condition of another, who are the best chris- 
tians as far as this act is concerned ? Moreover, who has acted 
most in accordance with the spirit and meaning of the golden 
rule, and the commandments of that benevolent and never- 
changing God, who says, " Ye shall buy." 

Knowing what they do now, and were they thus situated, 
would they not wish, nay, would they not give worlds, that some 
one would come and buy them and their families out of the hor- 
rid condition and transfer them and their posterity to planta- 
tions in America ? Let them answer upon their oaths ! It is 
no light matter to thwart the plans of God, simply because we 
don't understand them. " God's ways are not man's ways neither 
his thoughts their thoughts." But if slavery be an evil, as they 
allege, and the South have had it thrust upon them by Old Eng- 
land and New England, are they now to be told they are pirates^ 
thieves, and robbers ! and too, by those who have enriched 
themselves by their own defined, nefarious trade? Who are the 
veritable pirates, thieves, and robbers, if any there be? If 
wrong has been done, who ought to right it ? Heaven doubt- 
less would decide. Old England and New England, if it take 
every dollar and everything they possess on God's earth ! and 
until prepared for this, discretion, it seems to me, would require 
they should not be quite so brazen-faced with their denuncia- 



30 

tions, fov God has said, " Out of your own mouths ye shall be 
condemned." 

Be this as it may, are they not to be content to scatter this 
their peculiar moral suasion, alias immoral blackguardry — I 
speak of fanatics — far and wide through the States ; or must 
they carry it into Congress, where it has no more business than 
the spawn of Pandemonium has in Paradise ? It has already 
found its way in thither, and shown its cloven foot, manifesting 
significantly w^hat it would do if it had the power — oaths and 
Constitution to the contrary notwithstanding. 

If the brand of discord ignite there, and blood be shed upon 
that floor, the flame will spread like wildfire through the length 
and breadth of the land ; and what the consequences will be, 
all can imagine, but none predict ! 

The great South calmly and coolly look on at the elementary 
movement, but are silent ; yet the fires of indignation are at 
work internally, and when the day comes for action, the people 
will rise en masse, resolved upon a redress of grievances or 
death ! Their members of Congress will be required to prepare 
and demand an amendment of the Constitution. 1st. That 
there shall be a full representation of both bond and free in the 
South as there are of women and children at the North. (Just 
look at the relative importance of the two States of Louisiana 
and Maine to this Union. Still Louisiana has but four repre- 
sentatives in Congress, and Maine seven ! Bad Louisiana a 
full representation for her colored population, instead of three- 
fifths, she would then have but six — still one less than Maine ! 
Is this fair ?) 2d. That it shall be treason for the people of 
the said States to meddle with the domestic concerns of any 
other State, and especially with the institution of slavery, in 
word or deed, calculated to disturb the peace and quietness 
thereof, and punished accordingly. And 3d. The government 
of the United States shall guarantee to the South the peaceable 
possession of their property ; and in the event any of their ne- 
groes are stolen, or run away to the free States and not sent 
immediately back, or secured and due notice to the owner with- 
in ninety days, on certificate and appraisement being made by 
the proper authorities, the treasurer of the United States shall 
be authorized and required to pay the owner thereof the full 
value of his property. If these amendments be refused, the next 
thing will be to demand a peaceable division of the paternal 
estate. The only question remaining, where shall the line of 
demarkation be? The Middle and Western States will evi- 
dently go with the South. 1st. Because their interest leads, 
being within the line of Tariff". And, 2d. Because they like 



31 

the Southern people better than their arrogant and meddling 
brethren of the North. 

[It would be far more to the advantage of the South, that 
Mason and Dixon's should be the dividing line. Then the 
Southern States proper would become great manufacturing and 
provision-growing states, and the southwestern, relieved from 
their competition in the great staple, would obtain far better 
prices, and hence become prosperous and rich much beyond 
their present condition.] 

Then left alone in their glory, what a pretty little kingdom 
of " prerogatives " New England would make I And cut off 
from the monopoly of the great southern and southwestern 
markets, that old England would give from fifteen to twenty 
millions per annum for, would she not most likely go down as 
fast as she has gone up for the last twenty years? Her mil- 
lionaires become bankrupts, and the general prosperity of the 
country mildewed and blasted forever. Is this state of things 
desirable ? If not, wherefore make such a tremendous hazard 
for a contemptible ism ! that is at war with common sense, the 
common laws of the country, and above all, the clearly ex- 
pressed laws of God ? Arrest then the mad career of your 
fanatics — peaceably if you can, forcibly if you must ; for what 
right have they to judge their fellow servant ? " to his own 
master he standeth or falleth!" 

And can they be so stupid as to suppose that through their 
abusive vituperation, and the misrepresentations of the Holy 
Scripture I have cited, " which is so plain, that a wayfaring 
man though a fool need not err therein," that they will ever 
induce the South to give away their property and reduce their 
delicately raised families to poverty ? Why, such an idea is as 
absurd as a moon hoax ! and it seems to me, none but a moon- 
struck ninny could entertain such a sheer piece of nonsense for 
a moment. 

They may continue to boast through the newspapers of the 
number of slaves they aid in disobeying and running away from 
their masters every year ; but they should remember, whether 
they do this directly, or indirectly by their money and advice, 
it is a violation of all laws, human and divine, hence theft, and 
as deserving the penitentiary as it would be had they aided in 
dispossessing the owner of any other property. Why God so 
ordained I know not, but since it is found so plainly written in 
the Satute Book of Heaven, it cannot be expected that such a 
palpable violation is to be winked at in these days of gospel 
light. " What God has sanctified, let no man call common or 
unclean." "God's ways are not men's ways, neither his 
thoughts their thoughts." He stays not to reveal His entire 



32 

government to man, nor to account for His acts. His servants 
will hear His voice and obey, believing it will all result for the 
best in the end. 

I once asked one of our most intelligent abolition brethren, 
why it was that his society were so anxious to detain the free 
negroes in this country, where their very color enslaved them ? 
why not send them to Liberia, where they might, if they have 
talent and virtue requisite, in time, build up a great and flour- 
ishing country, like the United States — and where their exam- 
ple might ultimately civilize and christianize the whole African 
race ? — that this would be an object worthy the philanthropic 
and philosophic christain. 

He replied : They wished to keep them here till all their 
''brethren in bonds " in the South were emancipated ! 

I asked him how he expected to effect this — that the simple 
detention of the free negroes here was not sufficient ? 

He replied ; If moral suasion in addition to this proves un- 
availing, they would raise an army of free negroes — I beg par- 
don — '"our free colored brethren," who would be joined by 
their white brethren of the North, and that they would march 
an army of five hundred thousand strong on to Mason and 
Dixon's line, with banners emblazoned in golden capitals — 
Freedom to the Slave ! 

I asked him — From his knowledge of the Southern character, 
if he supposed he would find them sucking their fingers on his 
arrival upon Mason and Dixon's line ? — -or whether it Avas not 
more probable he would find himself confronted with another 
pepper and salt army in point of numbers equal to his own ? — 
say two hundred thousand picked negro fellows, armed to the 
teeth, officered by white men, flanked on either side with a 
hundred thousand mounted riflemen, and in the rear supported 
by a hundred thousand infantry and artillery, with banners 
emblazoned with golden capitals — Freedom to the peniten- 
tiary convicts, Irish catholics, foreigners in general, and all poor 
white operatives — these fine houses and lots, bank stock and 
money, and every thing you can lay your hands upon, are 
yours — we want nothing ourselves but the extermination of our 
enemies, and that we will have, or die in the ditch ! 

Now the war begins ! The commanding general orders his 
black troops to open the ball : There is the enemy — slaughter 
every devil of them, or by the gods, we will put every one of 
you to death upon the spot ! The negro slave is in the habit 
of obeying the white man's voice, and that he would do up the 
matter secundum artem we have no reason to doubt ; especially, 
after the illustrious example we have in old father Abraham's 
slaves in the xiv. chap. Gen. 14 verse. 



33 

Now fire and faggot devastate the land : every principal city 
and town sacked and burned : every free negro put to death, 
sold to the highest bidder, or expelled the country : and every 
demagogue abolitionist, whether of Church or State, hung up 
between heaven and earth by the heels ! 

With such an army, which would be daily increasing, any 
General, that could not cut a double swath through to Canada 
and back, ought to share the same fate. 

Here ends your abolition my friend ; do you like it ? I have 
since learned, my venerable friend has joined the peace society, 
and lectures as stoutly as he ever did on abolition. May God 
grant him a happy deliverance from his former great error, for he 
is a great and good man, with the exception of this monomania. 

But to return. After the experience the South has had, 
they would be stupid indeed, if they do not lay aside all party 
divisions, unite as one man, and never allow themselves to rest 
for a moment till they achieve every amendment to the consti- 
tution proposed in this little book — here lays their only security. 
And, indeed, I may add, the only security of the North. For 
if these amendments, which justice and safety demand, are 
cheerfully conceded, brotherly friendship will be restored ; 
prosperity will continue its rapid strides in every direction ; 
the oppressed of all countries will find a home and plenty here, 
under the shadow of this first God-like form of government ever 
established on the face of this globe, " where all can eat of the 
fruits of their own fields," "and worship under their own vine 
and fig tree, none to molest or make afraid." And this great 
country will soon become not only the greatest, but the most 
powerful known — the wonder and admiration of both God and 
man. But if folly and madness prevail, division will ensue, 
then collision, bloodshed, devastation and destitution, till the 
country is torn into fragments, and each ruled by some military 
despot " with a rod of iron ! " 

God ordained and established the Church as a light to the 
world — made it subject to the civil authority to keep it at its 
legitimate business ; and hence, intended it as a blessing to 
mankind. But what has been its course ? Alas! what? Why, 
through the agency of ambitious priests, with Rev'd. at the 
head, and D. D., at the tail of their cognomen — which I look 
upon as a little short of blasphemy, and especially the prefix ; 
and the latter should never be granted to a person short of 
sixty years of age, if at all. Whoever heard of the Rev. Jesus 
Christ, D. D. or Peter, or Paul ? none at all ! They needed 
no such artificial aids to give force and effect to their preach- 
ing ! " Woe be to those who seek honor one of another, and 
seeketh not alone that honor which cometh from God." This 
passage is especially addressed to clergymen, and if they be 
3 



84 

wise, they "will heed its admonition — I say through the agency 
of ambitious priests, leagued with unprincipled or crazy-headed 
demagogues, leaving their legitimate business, or rather making 
it subservient to their nefarious ends and aims — the honor, 
glory, and power of this world ! and hence what has been called 
The Chdrch of God, has been marked with fraternal blood! 
from the earliest periods to the present day, till it would be 
difficult for the philosopher, were it not for the few " who have 
not bowed the knee to Belial," "keeping their garments un- 
spotted from the world " — to decide whether it has indeed been 
a curse or a blessing to mankind ! And if ever this great and 
happy country is torn into fragments and deluged in fraternal 
blood, the cause will readily be traced to this same source ! 

For a few centuries past, God in his mercy has divided and 
subdivided the church into a great number of sects, and this 
has made its power direct for evil comparatively small, and 
hence, the people have had an opportunity to breathe free air ! 
— but indirectly, its power is still very great ; especially, when 
it can conjure up some fanatical idol to gull the people with, 
so as to draw largely upon their devoted purse and adulation. 

"As face in water answers to face, so does the heart of man 
to man " — hence, I would no sooner trust the Protestants, were 
they all united under one head, than I would the Catholics — for 
they are men of like passions, and apparently have no more the 
fear of God before their eyes. Indeed, they are less to be trust- 
ed — for they have children to follow them and to share their ill- 
gotten honor, power and glory. No, " keep them divided, and 
you will keep them comparatively pure." 

Our clergymen should " know nothing save Christ and him 
crucified ; " leaving politics and all secular matters to the peo- 
ple : not even vote ; for they cannot vote without taking sides; 
and when this is once known, their preaching will do but little 
good to those of opposite opinions. " Christ's kingdom is not 
of this world ! " 

Preach nothing but the pure, unadulterated Gospel — nothing 
more nor less — and, like leaven, it will have its proper influence 
on government, laws, and every institution : this, and nothing 
short of this, will satisfy God at the Bar of Judgment ! 

Now one word to that portion of our clergymen, of all de- 
nominations, who disclaim all connection with the abolitionists, 
and who, whether called or volunteered, having enlisted under 
the banner of the Saviour, and publicly professed to take the 
word of God for their guide, and, consequently, solemnly bound 
themselves to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth, " keeping nothing back," are they not aware 
that the sins of omission as well as commission applies to them- 
selves as well as other people, and to be punished accordingly ? 



35 

And are they not sensible that had they " cried aloud and 
spared not," and kept nothing back of what God has said upon 
this subject, abolitionism, with all its evil consequences, would 
have been sent back to the Gulf from Avhencc it emanated, long 
ago ? And would it not be well, even at this late period, to begin 
" to do works meet for repentance," before it is forever too late ? 
If they will but show half the zeal in the service of Christ and 
the Holy Book that the abolitionists show in opposition, or in 
another service, they may yet prevent the direful consequences 
I have taken the trouble to set in order before them, and which 
are as sure to occur as effect to follow cause, if they neglect 
their duty, while "watchmen upon the wall-towers of Zion." 

It is fair to infer that society was similarly infested in the 
days of the Apostles — but did they hesitate to proclaim the 
truth and rebuke sharply? Regardless of the "loaves and 
fishes," and honors of office, they had respect to the "recom- 
pense of reward," reserved for the faithful hereafter. The fear 
of God rathar than man influenced them, and " while preaching 
to others, they were careful not to become castaways them- 
selves " through neglect of duty. 

Again, is it not likely when these sad reverses begin to be 
realized, the people will begin to look for the " whys and where- 
fores? " And when they shall have discovered the Institution 
of Slavery was established and made common to Christendom 
by the Fiat of Omnipotence, and not a solitary word is said 
against it, fairly and properly construed, from Genesis to Reve- 
lations, will they not be disposed, in their grief and vexation, 
to hold their unfaithful teachers accountable, and give them a 
foretaste of that punishment reserved for " blind leaders of the 
blind? " It will hardly avail to tell them, you are the direct 
descendants of Apostles through the Puritans, the Popes, or 
Purgatory ; if they manifest their usual good sense in their 
private matters, they will be very apt to look and see if you 
have followed in the footsteps of your illustrious predecessors, 
and "judge the tree by its fruit." " Judgment must begin at 
the House of God " — the Church. 

" As you sow, so shall you reap ! If ye do well ye shall re- 
ceive well; if evil, evil ! " '■'■Verbum sat sapienti." 
REFLECTIONS. 

It seems to me, there never were a people more mistaken as 
it regards results, could they have their way, than the people 
of the North, both as to their own best interests, those of the 
South, and indeed those of the negro slave. 

Let us suppose the Southern States had been settled by free 
white inhabitants, as they most ardently desired, instead of 
slaves for operatives. Is it not morally certain, had it so re- 



36 

suited, they would have grown their own provisions, manufac- 
tured ^their own clothing, &c., instead of purchasing almost 
their entire supplies from their eastern and western neighbors t 
Unquestionably. 

Now had this been the case, what would have been the con- 
dition of the North, compared to what it is under a more ad- 
vantageous state of things ? Would it not approach nearer 
that of the Canadas than its present wealthy and prosperous 
condition ? I think so. 

Both east and west have enjoyed for a very long time almost 
a complete monopoly of supplying the South and southwest, 
free of duties, with their provisions, clothing, carriages, furni- 
ture and agricultural implements, to say nothing of the thousand 
and one non-enumerated articles, including wooden clocks, 
wooden nutmegs, &c., almost at their own prices ! nor of the 
unrestricted carrying trade by their ships and steamers. All 
these advantages they have enjoyed and to which they are in- 
debted for their present prosperity, and for their future pros- 
perity, if they don't "pull the house down over their own 
heads," or allow their fanatics and aspiring demagogues to do 
it for them. But where is their gratitude for these great and 
especial privileges ? and how do they treat the South ? " Theif 
have got fat and now they kick." 

Notwithstanding the sedition in New England and that which 
they have sown in the middle and western States, it is not dis- 
putable, however much they may dispute it, for their present 
prosperity over and above the Canadas, they are much more 
indebted to the existence and extension of slave labor in the 
South than to any and all other causes. Still they abuse and 
grossly insult the very hand that feeds them ! 

Now suppose the South should adopt their very sage (!) ad- 
vice, and emancipate all their slaves, what would in all proba- 
bility be the consequence ! Why, from the experience we have 
had before our eyes in St. Domingo and Jamaica, the negroes 
would perform just labor enough, in addition to what they could 
rob from the whites, to live a lazy, dancing, dissolute, savage 
life, till the whites, finding it impossible to live among them, 
would abandon everything and fly with their families to the free 
States ; then the negroes would fall upon and butcher one 
another ! " What a pretty spectacle this would be to set be- 
fore the King." And would their abolition advisers be found 
ready with open arms to give their white colored brethren aid 
and comfort in the shape of house-room, food and raiment ? 
Perhaps they might allow them the crumbs that fall from mas- 
ter's table ! and perhaps now and then some good, nice, young, 
old, fat, lean sheep (!) "killed to save its life," and furnished 
by the lowest bidder to feed the poor old public poor upon— 



37 

Wilmot proviso — that they would black their master's boots, 
and "do other -works meet for repentance " for not obeying 
their mandate before ! Perhaps they might say grace over the 
crumbs and the fragrant viands, and tell them that " God is 
merciful to the j^enitent!" 

It may be said a standing army might be established to com- 
pel the negroes to work. But this could not be done over such 
an expansive country. And if possible, the expense would be 
impossible, unless the North would bear it. But if possible, 
would this kind of slavery be more tolerable than the present ? 

What a pity it is that the South are so ignorant and besotted 
that they cannot see their own best interest, and turn them- 
selves out of doors for the benefit of their wise, loving, North- 
ern brethren's self-righteousness and their idol. Abolitionism ! 
which was set up by the church for them to worship, as the 
golden calf was set up for the worship of the Israelites. But 
if they keep on with their ^^ moral suasion " there is no know- 
ing what wonders they may work yet ! 

Suppose Kentucky should take the advice of her great phil- 
osopher, Cassius M., and abolish slavery, would this clear the 
ground of them, and fill their places with white, industrious in- 
habitants, like those of Ohio ? Hardly, I think. In the first 
place, neither the free nor the slave States would permit such 
a multitude to come among them ; and if they could be sent to 
Liberia, or elsewhere, their places would not be filled with white 
servants. First, because the people of the North don't like the 
manners, customs, pistols and dirks, of the Kentuckians. And 
secondly, would the people go from the North to purchase 
second-handed lands at from ten to twenty dollars per acre, 
when, in any of the western States or Territories, they can get 
any quantity of the very best new lands at Congressional price ? 
Before the Kentuckians make the move they had better sit 
down and count the cost. 

Fanatics, both foreign and domestic, when put hors du com- 
bat by those who understand the Bible, sacrilegiously appeal to 
the Declaration of Independence, as though it was paramount 
to God's word and fiat ! and argue as lustily as though they 
had the bull by the horns ! 

Our Declaration of Independence is a pretty piece of poetry, 
and answered admirably well the object of its generation : 
That the people of this country were born free and equal, and 
entitled to all the rights and privileges of those left behind on 
the little island, neither law nor equity can deny — and it was 
for these, and only these, that our fathers contended ; but being 
denied, no alternative remained but, vi et armis, to divide the 
paternal estate; which, after a long and bloody struggle, through 
the providence of God, our father ! they not only achieved. 



38 

but made permanent, and handed down to their children a 
glorious inheritance ! 

It will be well here to notice, that there were a plenty of 
dough-faced wiseacres in Britain in those days, like the present 
here, who, while goading the colonies to distraction, exclaimed — 
0, they dare not dissolve! If they do, we will set their negroes 
upon them and cut their throats ! or as the devil told Eve, if 
she ate the forbidden fruit, she should not surely die ! But 
Burke had the sagacity to inform them, if they proceeded on 
that supposition, they would find in the end, they had reckoned 
without their host ! Let our Solomons learn wisdom ! 

But to return. From the Declaration of Independence to 
pretend that all men, in the universal sense, slaves and all, are 
born free and equal, is not only an absurd inference, but an 
assertion contradicted by all history, sacred and profane, from 
the remotest ages to the present day. For example — Will any 
one pretend to say, that the slaves, born in Abraham's house 
and bought with his money, were free and equal with Isaac, 
the heir apparent ? Every person is born as free and equal as 
the mother that bore him ; this is all that history asserts ; con- 
sequently, all that truth can allege. If any one enjoys privi- 
leges above this, they are acquired or bestowed, not an inherent 
right ! Anything beyond this may do to sing, but not to 
preach ! God has said in the 21st Exodus, 4th ver. : The 
children shall be his master's. Why ? because the mother be- 
longed to the master, in fee. 

God's fiat is another thing, altogether, to the dictum of men, 
however high their pretensions. He did not spare the violators 
of his laws in ancient times, under any pretext, much less will 
he in these days of gospel light. Let the people, therefore, 
beware, before mischief he done ! 

The South have emancipated more than a hundred millions 
worth of negro property — many of whom have gone to Africa 
to civilize and christianize their colored brethren. All these 
could have been sold for money ; and had these Southern mas- 
ters had a little wooden nutmeg spice in their composition, 
doubtless they would have availed themselves of the lucre, and 
then perhaps come North and turned Abolitionists, and after a 
few lusty grunts and groans, would have been deemed by their 
brethren entitled to the chief seats in the '" Synagogue of 
Satan." 

But what have Abolionists done but distract the peace and 
quiet of this country ? and now by their emissaries in Congress, 
endangering the very existence of this Union ! Echo asks, 

WHAT ? 

If government should so order, negro servants might be di- 
rectly imported from Africa, in our national ships in time of 



39 

peace — a christian service — in a far more comfortable condition 
than any European emigrants come here, and delivered to the 
purchaser at cost and charges — provided the purchaser would 
agree to re-deliver them to government to be sent back : the 
men at fifty years of age, their wives, if any, at whatever age, 
"when, in their highly cultivated state, their influence would be 
felt. Perhaps the South would come into the arrangement for 
peace sake — if so, it would be but a short time before as many 
would be going back as coming forward, and then, with what 
gigantic strides would civilization and Christianity walk over 
that benighted region ! What a glorious object for America ; 
and she alone should have the glory of doing it — God has most 
bountifully blessed her ; let her show her gratitude by being a 
blessing to Africa. 

Negroes brought from Africa, it is true, would not be Avorth 
one-fourth of one raised in this country; but then again, they 
would not cost one-fourth as much. But away with such mer- 
cenary calculations. Any man that has no other standard to 
measure his actions than dollars and cents, is a worshipper of 
the Golden Calf — an idolater ! 

Let it not be forgotten, that the free States were all once 
slave States ; but the knowing ones, supposing it would be much 
more easy to establish peculiar privileges for themselves and 
their children, in the absence of wealthy, intelligent, and inde- 
pendent farmers, who might veto their usurpations — made a 
virtue of fraud, and ^'- prospectively'' xohhedi them of their 
property ! Monarchy, or high usurping aristocracy, cannot 
live alongside of the independent farmer or planter, who own 
their own servants. 

Suppose Fanny Wright had persuaded the South to abolish 
matrimony, and her societies had opened their batteries of 
" Moral Suasion " (!) her fanatics no doubt, would have found 
it quite easy, simply by consulting the records of divorces, even 
in the little State of Connecticut, for the last thirty years, to 
have found abundance of material, of abominable abuses of 
husbands to their wives, to have made a volume quite equal to 
that put forth by the American Anti-slavery Society of New 
York, 1839 — and made it appear as the general chai-acter of 
the Northern, or free States ; and raised all the ignorant fa- 
natics of the South against " the awful tyrants of the North !" 
But enough of this humbug ! Let the people be enlightened. 

God never would have authorized slavery, had it not been 
intended as a blessing to mankind. And if it does not so re- 
sult, it is the fault of man, not the institution. I think I have 
already shown this, as it regards the slaves, and the people of 
the North ; and I think I shall show, if the people of the South 



40 

do not participate in the blessing, it is their own fault, not the 
institution, and they need blame no one but themselves. 

If Southern gentlemen would be more enterprising, look after 
their business themselves, introduce science into everything, 
feed, clothe and house their people superbly, then make them 
work fifty per cent, more, which they would do cheerfully — 
and then not do near so much as a Northern white laborer — 
then divide their labor into scientific farming, manufacturing, 
and planting on their rich bottom lands ; then they would make 
within themselves their own provisions and clothing, and the 
large amount of cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco and hemp they 
would have annually to sell, would bring in large quantities of 
money from all quarters, which would give impetus to every 
enterprise, and with their own operatives, they could beat the 
world in every department of industry and improvement, and 
would soon be quite as prosperous as their Northern neighbor, 
which are this day the most flourishing part of the world. But 
if they sit down, talk politics, drink mint julips, and leave the 
negroes to bask under the shady trees, and what little they 
make, let it be taken away for Yankee notions, they will turn 
the blessing of God into a curse, will be a mock and a by-word 
to all Christendom, and will have more reason to curse their own 
"masterly inactivity," than the hardness of the times, "^s 
you sow, so shall you reap." 

With due deference to the opinions of all honest and good 
men, however much they may differ with me in opinion, and 
utter contempt for those of the self-righteous, selfish, unprinci- 
pled demagogue, whether of Church or State, who hesitates not 
to pervert God's Word, however plain, under the guise of mock- 
heroic philanthropy, misleading the people to their destruction 
for their own selfish aggrandizement ! and after the deed is 
done, then crying aloud, " 0, the people are not fit for self- 
government!" I hesitate not to say, maugre the opinions of 
all these, God grant the institution of slavery, regulated by the 
principles of the gospel, may ever exist in at least half of the 
United States. For I feel well assured, after the study I have 
given this subject, that if ever anything could be considered as 
demonstrated without a practical test, it has been demonstrated 
that had it not been for Southern slaveholding States, even had 
we started with a republican form of government, the people 
would have been cheated out of their liberty at last ! without 
being bought or selling themselves to their masters. 

The privileged orders having the making and administration 
of the laws, it is perfectly in accordance with human nature 
and all experience, to weave them over the people, as the spider 
weaves his web, taxing and voting themselves and their sons 
after them, high salaries, special privileges, and perpetual 



41 

offices, till the poor farmors and mechanics, and all other labor* 
ing people, entangled in their meshes, would not know which 
way to turn ! and if they became restive under the oppression, 
the cry would be, law and order ! law and order ! I law and or- 
der ! ! ! " Frequent rotation in office is the salvation of the 
Republic.'' 

Thank God that there Avas such a place as the South, where 
the sages maintained and enforced liberal principles, while the 
Northern laboring men, encouraged by such powerful aid, se- 
lected their own leaders, hurled back the aspiring demagogues 
and political fanatical priests, and achieved for themselves a 
glorious victory. This glorious position they may ever main- 
tain, if they continue to go shoulder to shoulder with their 
Southern brethren. 

It is amusing to see these fanatical priests and Wilmot Pro- 
viso fraternity, attempting to gull the South with their moral 
suasion ! " for a thousand pair of asses ears to deck our 
sage mens heads with !" 

They will assume any guise, or disguise, even that of an an- 
gel of light, like the parent of the society, to curtail the power 
of the South, so that they may get both Houses of Congress 
into their own hands, then all the offices of government, then 
the privilege of taxing the South ad libitum, and then, per- 
haps, they would consent to live in peace, provided always, 
that they can have these privileges secured to them and their 
posterity by law and order. As to the Jure Divino, they can 
find or make passages of Scripture enough to establish that, by 
the grace of God, at the shortest possible notice. They can 
just as easily find — " Topnot come down," as ''Let those upon 
the house-top not come down." 

" When crazy theorists, their addled schemes, 
Unseemly product of dyspeptic dreams. 
Impute to Thee ! as Courtesans of yore, 
Their spurious bantlings laid at Mars' door." 

But enough. 

"Their lust is murder! and their infernal joy 
Is to tear their country, and their kind destroy." 

Deus vobis bene faxit. 

By way of retaliation for attacks made on the South by 
Northern fanatic.^ it is often said by Southern men that the 
Yankee planters are the hardest masters. This simply means, 
the Yankees feed and clothe well, and then make their negroes 
work as white men work at the North, and consequently these 
Yankee planters always get rich- 

The writer could mention hundreds of instances that have 
come within his knowledge, but will name but three. Dr. 
Rogers, of Georgia, went from Connecticut, and when he ar- 



42 

rived in Savannah, had but three dollars in his pocket — he is 
now supposed to be worth half a million. He is pointed out as 
a hard master, but the writer has been present when neighbor- 
ing negroes have begged him to buy them, and has heard the 
Doctor say — •' But you know I am called a hard master ! " 
The negroes replied — " We know you make your people work, 
Sir, but you feed and clothe them." 

Mr. Tillotson also went from Connecticut, and with little 
means, and now makes four hundred hogsheads of sugar per 
annum, in Louisiana. 

Judge Morgan went from Boston, began cotton planting in 
Upper Louisiana, with but very little means, and is now worth 
more than half a million of dollars. In a word, the negroes 
prefer these hard masters for their masters, and the Southern 
girls prefer them for their lords and masters ; and I commend 
the good judgment of both, and shall continue to do so, till 
my Southern brethren learn to manage their afftiirs likewise. 
I introduce these gentlemen, simply to show, that it is not the 
institution, but the sad management of the institution that does 
the mischief. Had my Southern brother bestowed the same 
attention as his Northern brother, the South would be the 
richest and most prosperous part of the country. 

The above gentlemen, had they remained at the North, in- 
stead of being rich planters, would doubtless be poor men, if 
not poor free laborers for others, at this very time. But now 
they are all highly respectable and intelligent gentlemen, have 
greatly improved the condition of the negro, and all in conse- 
quence " of the accursed, bliglxting effects of slavery." 

The truth is, the Southern planter is the only true keeper 
of God's commands in this particular—the only true friend to 
Africa and the African race ; and it is the North, and not the 
South, that lies under the condemnation, and must so remain, 
till they "c^o works meet for repentance.'' '■^ Thief C7ying 
thief," won't do — that trick is too old. 

The writer wishes it to be distinctly understood, that he has 
no feelings of revenge to gratify, against any class of his fel- 
low-citizens. It is an ISM, and an ism alone, which if allowed 
to go on unarrested, is sure to deluge this our beloved country 
in suicidal and fraternal blood, that he wishes to rebuke, and 
that sharply too ; because it is his right and his duty to himself, 
his posterity, and his country, to do so. But against his abo- 
lition brethren, and especially those who have been — through 
a perversion of God's Word, and the abominable falsehood re- 
peated over and over against the South, and passed from mouth 
to mouth, by designing, unprincipled demagogues — misled into 
this blasphemous error., he has not the least unkind feeling. 



43 

May God grant, thoy may be delivered from this fatal blind- 
ness, before it is forever too late. 

I use here, in the conclusion, the word servant in place of 
slave, for, on reflection, it is the most, if not the only proper 
terra. It is derived from the Latin word Servus, which purely 
means a servant belonging to his master — in contradistinction 
to minister, mercenary, hireling and domestic — each of which 
terms, having its peculiar application. Moreover, in the word 
slave, there is something odious ; and as many persons are in- 
fluenced by sounds, it should be stricken from our language, or 
at least from common use. The term slave, owes its origin to 
the Sclavonians, who were seized and sold throughout Europe, 
and reduced to the vilest, most vindictive, cruel servitude and 
oppression imaginable. But that state of things long ago 
ceased to exist ; let the term therefore, by which it was known, 
cease also. 

I have now, gentlemen, finished my task, after a patient in- 
vestigation of this great subject, for more than ten years, during 
Avhich time, I have read and listened to much, if not all that 
has been said and written, pro and con, in the course of my 
summer tours through every State in this Union, which would 
amount to more than fifty thousand miles ; and not feeling 
satisfied with the treatment of this most fatal disease upon the 
body politic, I took the Bible in hand, and with the patience and 
perseveance of a lawyer, critically examined every page from 
Genesis to Revelations ; and I must confess, if lever was aston- 
ished at any thing, I certainly was at the blasphemous use that 
men, professing better things, had made of this Holy Book I 

There is an old proverb, that — " There cannot be much smoke 
without some fire," — or in other words — " Truth enough to make 
a lie out of! " But in this case I have found an exception to 
these rules. After the atmosphere of this happy country has 
been made foul by the pestiferous, pestilential breath of crazy- 
headed or knavish abolition fanatics, " with tongues set on fire 
of hell ! " not a spark of the fire of the truth has been found, 
or can be found, authorizing their nefarious proceedings, in the 
Bible ! 

I here present you with the result of my labors — A little 
PAMPHLET, divested of all the chaff" of verbiage, covering the 
whole subject in a condensed form, so that all can find time to 
read it ; and still, so lucid and conclusive, " That a wayfaring 
man, though a fool, need not err therein." 

I feel that I have now done my duty as a citizen ; and if 
you will take the necessary steps to place a copy of this little 
pamphlet in every family of these still United States, come 
what may, you will at least have the consolation of knowing 
that you have done yours. 



44 



As under our much loved and admirable form of governmen 
all power rests with the people, it is above all things of th 
utmost importance, that the people should be enlightened, an 
kept enlightened, especially upon all greot national subjects. 

As it is, this unique subject, although the greatest in import 
ance and consequences that ever agitated the country, is nc 
allowed, in the free States, to be spread before the people, h\ 
the press or by the pulpit, although the latter are most sol 
emnly bound to God and their country to proclaim to the peo 
pie the trutli, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No 
" while Belial has his thousands, not one true prophet is to b 
found in all Israel !" And hence it is, after the people havi 
had their pure minds perverted by the foul-mouthed, ^^ fieri/ 
y??/2w^ " fanatics through the land, brazen-faced demagogue; 
upon the floor of Congress rise and assert, that a majority o 
the people of the North are with them in their depredationi 
upon the rights and interests of the South ! But enough. 

I am willing to superintend the printing, and will furnish, t( 
any government agent, a million, or any number of copies the^ 
may think proper to order, at a price per copy too insignificant 
to mention here. Or if this proposition does not suit, I wil 
make a present of it to the government, if they will obligatt 
themselves to put it into every house ; for I am sure it wil' 
never find its way there, unless by their authority — notwith- 
standing it is of far more import to the free States than to the 
Southern — and even if it could, it would not have a tenth part 
of the force and effect it would have with it. You are the 
GUARDIAKS : — Preserve this land of Washington from discord 
and destruction, or its blood may be required at vour hands. 

AMOR PATRI^. 

1'. S. As it was in ihe contest between the Colonies and Great Britain, it sliould ever be 
remembered — it is not tliose who demand their rights, but those thdt wiihhold thorn who aie 
the disunionisls. Never allow a Territory or State south of 36 30 ever lo come inio this Union 
denying \a its citizens the right of owning their own Fetvants, as long as this privilege exists in 
any portion of these Statt-s. Any :?outhein man that will not be firm in this to the very letter, 
fegiudlfiss of party, deserves to be sent to purgatory in irons, without grace. You have God and 
his Bible with you ; hence if you are tirm, courageous, united, and persevering, you have nothing 
to fear. If the lug of war must come, it better come now, when the Souih is less prepared for 
it — iind she is growing comparatively weaker every day. 

Doubtless every '• done brown" trick imaginable will be attempted in the introduction of new 
states south of 86 30. Constitutions not objectionable may be presented, and the next year after 
admission, changed by a called convention! The re fore let it be understood, whenever this takes 
place, such Stale forfeits her right to send Senators and Representatives to Congress, and reverts 
to a lerritory If the squatters don't like the conditions, let them resqual upon ibeir own side of 
the line. The South must manage to keep up a positive equilihrinm in the Senate, even if they 
have to divide some of their largest States. The little l^tates of Delaware and Rhode Island 
should be annexed to Maryland and Connecticut. There is no justice in these mere counties 
liaving as much influence upon the Senate floor as New York and Virginia. " The North are re- 
solved upon humbling the South ! " But 1 am inclined to think, when they get through with their 
humbling process, there will be but little lefi noith of Mason and Dixon's line, worth the humbling. 

Note. — Tha South need never give themselves any uneasiness in conset;uence of being in 
Ihe minority in both Houses of Congress, for they will always hold the balance of power, and 
hence, will share more largely in all the measures and oftices of Government than they could if 
equal in numbers with ihe North, viz : The North will always be divided, and the South, if they 
act as one body, can always put into power either party as they please, hence their power will 
always be courted by both the Noil hern parties. 

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